Road Funding for Councils
The issue of road funding has been in the news recently. LGNZ was asked to respond to criticism from a Roading New Zealand report on layoffs due to falling roading contractor demand - and which attributed a major part of this to the discrepancy between the funds provided by the New Zealand Transport Agency and the uptake by local government for new construction.
Unfortunately, our comments weren't given in their full context in some news stories, so we spoke with the journalists concerned and wrote to newspaper editors to make sure they understood the broader picture. We aim to help them with their coverage of local government issues in the future, so the full story gets reported.
We explained that until recently there have been difficulties with councils planning on three-year cycles and NZTA planning on an annual basis; that road funding doesn't just go to new construction (and councils have fully taken up the funding allocated for maintenance for the past four years!); and that councils are predicted to spend $30 billion on new and replacement infrastructure over the next decade.
Now that NZTA is working alongside us with a three-year funding regime, these problems hopefully won't arise.
Local government has been under pressure to restrain rate increases while continuing to invest in local economic activity. This is a tightrope which few others in the economy have been asked to walk.
It's critical that journalists get the whole story out, not just one part of it. Local Government New Zealand is determined to continue advocating on your behalf to improve the public understanding of how local government works.
Lawrence Yule
President, Local Government New Zealand
Posted 3 February 2010
