KEY POINTS:
It is nearly two years now since Aucklanders throughout the region overwhelmingly backed regional funding for 14 regional institutions. Top scorer in an Auckland City-Phoenix Research poll was the Auckland rescue helicopter, with 96 per cent support, followed closely by Surf Lifesaving, with 92 per cent. Then came the zoo and Watersafe Auckland.
Several arts organisation were close behind - Auckland-based Opera New Zealand got 81 per cent, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra 76 per cent, and Auckland Art gallery 75 per cent.
Despite this overwhelming public support, local politicians continue to drag their feet over the final details of the legislation required to make what has become known as the Auckland Regional Funding Initiative happen.
Now it's panic time. The proposed bill is unlikely to reach Parliament until late June-early July. It then has to be passed before the October local body elections.
The worry is that if the legislation is not passed by then, newly elected councillors from around the region might want to tinker with the wording - or worse.
If you've forgotten all about the project, it's not your fault. Proponents of the bill have been keen to keep everything hush hush for fear publicity would rile the majority of local politicians outside Auckland City who are against paying their fair share for regional facilities.
Indeed I'm going to get it in the neck from some supporters for what I'm now writing.
But after the huge support shown in the Phoenix opinion poll, maybe a bit of openness will do no harm. Certainly it's hard to imagine the process going any slower, short of it grinding to a total halt.
Today, representatives of the 11 organisations chosen to benefit from the legislation are meeting in secret to comment on the latest version of the budget drawn up by the steering group.
At the beginning of the process, these groups came up with a combined funding wishlist rumoured to have totalled around $30 million.
These groups now receive in total just over $5 million in ratepayer funding, so it was a rather cheeky request. Today's meeting will be to consider a more manageable "indicative funding requirement" of $12.7 million.
Of this, it is proposed Auckland City ratepayers will pay $5.53 million, compared with $4.4 million currently. Manukau comes next on $2.51 million, then North Shore ($2.34 million), Waitakere ($1.16 million), Rodney ($650,000), Franklin ($270,000) and Papakura ($230,000).
Compared with Auckland City's present $4.4 million contribution, the other councils contribute a measly $650,000 between them.
The proposed act will mirror the funding legislation for the Auckland Museum and the Museum of Transport and Technology, under which these regional institutions are funded through a levy on all ratepayers in the region.
Auckland City ratepayers now pay the lion's share for most of these regional arts and community institutions, leaving them struggling to survive or grow.
A copy of the proposed budget appeared on my desk in a plain brown envelope yesterday. What struck me was how a few cuckoo organisations seem to have infiltrated the nest.
The initiative was triggered by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's financial woes. It was decided to bring together several ratepayer-funded organisations, the APO included, and pass one act to legislate for regional funding for the lot. It made practical sense. Throwing in a few non art-related organisations, such as the zoo and the Stardome observatory, made political sense.
But is the Auckland Regional Helicopter Trust something to which ratepayers should suddenly be giving $1.5 million a year? That's as much as the APO stands to get and more than the Auckland Festival Trust's proposed $1.2 million. Today, the helicopter trust gets $4338 from ratepayers.
The coastguard is another questionable addition to the rates bill. The proposal is to increase the $15,000 it gets from ratepayers to $500,000.
I'm sure both organisations do sterling work. But one is an air ambulance service that should be supported by the health authorities, and the other rescues sailors at sea, and should be financed by ship owners and insurers, or the government, not land-bound ratepayers.
Still, these details can be hammered out once the bill gets to a select committee. The priority now is to do that, and quickly. Otherwise Auckland's arts organisations and the ring-ins, cuckoos included, face an anorexic future.
