Motorway tolls. Or higher rates and petrol prices. Those are the options being presented to Aucklanders as a silver bullet to fix the city's road congestion and poor public transport system.
Yesterday, Aucklanders woke to the news that their journey to work on the motorway could cost $2 each way. The options stem from an independent advisory group, beavering away for two years on new funding sources to plug a $12 billion transport funding gap over the next 30 years. Tolls are not new to Aucklanders. They applied on the Harbour Bridge until 1984 and motorists now pay $2.20 on the Northern Gateway.
But the proposed "Motorway User Charge" is citywide, complex and among the largest of its kind in the world. It will cost the average household $350 a year, and $1500 or more for many motorists. The alternative option of higher rates and a regional petrol tax really is a no-flyer. It unfairly targets non-transport users, has fewer economic benefits and carries a rates timebomb.
Realistically, that leaves Mayor Len Brown with only one option to achieve his goal of sorting out Auckland's transport problems.
To introduce tolls on 119 motorway on-ramps at a cost of $108 million, Brown must do two things: get the support of Aucklanders and get the support of the Government to pass any new taxes into law.
