A collection of thoughts on a regional fuel tax
There was plenty of talk about the introduction of a regional fuel tax yesterday following an announcement by new Transport Minister Phil Twyford that one would be introduced in a matter of months. I thought I’d pull together a couple of my thoughts about aspects related to a potential regional fuel tax.…
123 Comments Govt silly to reject Regional Fuel Tax
Last Thursday Finance Minister Steven Joyce announced that the government was “ruling out” using a regional fuel tax as one way to fill the $4 billion transport funding gap that was identified by ATAP. He noted a few reasons for this decision:
And second, I stress that we are not interested in introducing a regional fuel tax.…
Keeping the option of a regional fuel tax
A number of changes (most of them really bad) are proposed to the Land Transport Management Act, with the LTMA Amendment Bill open for submissions until October 26th before a select committee then hears the submissions and thinks about making changes to the Bill. …
Council investigation into fuel tax
There was quite a bit of discussion about two weeks ago when discussion of alternative funding options was raised again by the council. They had identified a number of options to investigate further, despite Gerry Brownlee shooting them down straight away.…
How to cover Auckland’s (supposed) transport funding gap?
The Council issued a press release today highlighting that it’s shifting to the next phase of analysing ways in which to bridge the $10-15 billion funding gap between the projects that are (supposedly) required over the next 30 years and the amount of money available under traditional funding schemes.…
The regional fuel tax
One aspect of the government’s proposed changes to the Land Transport Management Act (LTMA) is the repeal of a provision which allows regional councils to introduce regional fuel taxes. Already the process to create a regional fuel tax seems quite complex, as the government was able to unilaterally cancel the Auckland scheme back in March 2009, delaying projects like electrification, Penlink and integrated ticketing – which had been banking on that money.…
Can transport be an election issue?
Auckland’s poor transport outcomes over the years are probably the result of one over-riding factor: that while we vote on transport matters in local elections, local governments don’t have much money, central government holds the purse strings. Yet when it comes to national elections, we tend to have much bigger issues on our mind (taxes, health, crime, education, the economy etc.)…
Shedding some light on this $30 million “funding gap”
My previous post, which commented on an NZ Herald article relating to operating costs of Auckland’s rail system, noted the somewhat bizarre emergence of a $30 million funding gap. While my previous post asked the question of “where the heck did this funding gap come from?”…
Electrification – a solution
Auckland’s rail electrification project has had a torrid history. For years the previous government put it off, put it off, refused to stump up any money, put it off some more… and then finally came up with a solution where Aucklanders would pay for the project via a regional fuel tax.…
Where is the funding for our electric trains?
Back in March when the government cancelled the Regional Fuel Tax that was going to pay for Auckland’s rail electrification, Steven Joyce affirmed the government’s commitment to paying for electrification in other ways. Initially it seemed like the whole country was going to pick up the bill via a 6c a litre tax, although subsequently we’ve realised that this tax will be going to Steven Joyce’s pet roads of National significance, rather than being spent on rail.…
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