KEY POINTS:
The cost of running Auckland has topped $3 billion, overseen by more than 6300 bureaucrats, countless consultants and eight chief executives with combined salaries of $2.5 million.
A Herald survey of the seven councils and Auckland Regional Council shows a 15 per cent jump in staff numbers and an 18 per cent jump in salaries since a survey two years ago.
The workforce of 6316 gobbles up $399 million a year in wages, compared with a wages bill of $337 million in 2006. In Auckland City alone, the bureaucracy has expanded by nearly 500, largely to improve service for resource and building consents and handle a big rise in capital spending.
Not all the $3 billion comes from rates. User charges, income from investments and loans generate a large amount of the spending money.
The survey does not include rates, which are difficult to use for comparative purposes because of the different rating systems and methods of charging for rubbish, water and wastewater between councils.
Last year's inquiry into rates said comparing residential rates across the region was a "difficult exercise" but found Auckland City had the highest average rates in the 2006-2007 financial year at $2294, considerably higher than North Shore at $2052, Manukau $1787 and Waitakere $1581. It did not estimate the residential rates for the three district councils and regional council.
The latest survey has been conducted during the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Auckland Governance, which is halfway through public hearings on reshaping Auckland for the next 50 to 100 years.
There is a consensus building for a strengthened regional authority to own regional assets and carry out regional functions, but opinion is divided about keeping the local in local government. Some want to keep the present three-tier model of a regional body, city councils and community boards. Others believe a regional body and strengthened community councils should do the job.
In its submission to the commission, the Auckland Regional Council said a Greater Auckland Council supported by about 30 community councils would lead to potential savings of $160 million a year. The NZ Council for Infrastructure Development said it would be reasonable to expect savings of $200 million a year.
Neither has produced robust analysis to back up these claims.
The creation of a mega-city in Toronto in 1998 cost C$275 million ($351 million) and was predicted to bring savings of C$300 million a year. Eight years later a report found the reforms generated few if any savings.
A 2006 McKinlay Douglas review of local government in New Zealand, Australia, England and Canada found that reduced costs and/or improved services from amalgamation were "at best equivocal".
Research into the 1989 amalgamations by Professor Paul Rouse, of Auckland University's Business School, found smaller councils were more efficient and satisfied principles of accountability and public access.
