Mayor ready to get to work on light rai
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has welcomed the Government's announcement that it will allow Auckland to introduce a regional fuel tax to fund investment in the city's transport network including light rail to the airport.
Mayor Phil Goff said, "During the mayoral campaign I advocated for a regional fuel tax to fund Auckland's transport needs.
"Auckland has to pay its share of desperately needed transport infrastructure to tackle congestion which is worsening with 50,000 people being added to our city each year.
"Light rail will help decongest our roads and provide a 21st century gateway to visitors to Auckland. It will also allow for more intensive housing development around transport hubs bringing economic benefits to those suburbs it travels through.
"A fuel tax is effective and cheap, and easy to administer. It will help ensure that Auckland can pay its share of the nearly $27 billion expenditure on transport infrastructure over the next 10 years.
"Without this level of investment our rapidly growing population will worsen the congestion on our roads with mounting costs in frustration and lost productivity.
"A regional fuel tax of 10 cents a litre will raise twice as much money as the Interim Transport Levy to invest in new transport infrastructure. It will also be much fairer by relating the money paid to use of our roads.
"Transport investment in Auckland is a partnership between Government and Council, and I look forward to discussions with the Prime Minister and Minister for Transport in the coming weeks to begin work to introduce the fuel tax in Auckland as quickly as possible and agree on the funding and transport priorities over the coming decade," Mayor Phil Goff said.