June 12, 2023
Numbers don’t stack up for share sale rush
A South Auckland councillor says the partial sale of Auckland Council’s airport shares does nothing to fix the super city’s longer term financial issues.
The council on Friday voted to reduce its stake in the airport from 18 percent to 10 percent, after Mayor Wayne Brown dropped his demand all the shares be sold.
The move was opposed by the council’s four Maori and Pasifika councillors along with Manurewa-Papakura ward representative Angela Dalton and Waitemata ward representative Mike Lee.
Ms Dalton says partial sale of the councils biggest revenue-producing asset won’t produce the sort of debt reduction the mayor was counting on.
“So the net benefit would be around $28 million a year which is not much when the hole we are trying to fill is $325 million so the numbers aren’t stacking up for me let alone the fact I think we need to have a broader conversation about it,” he says.
The agreed budget also includes cutting funds for the council’s Kauri Kids childcare centres, $4 million in cuts to local board funding, $7.9 million in cuts to regional funding, and an overall 7.7 percent rates increase for the average value residential property.