Fuel tax the fairest way to fix transport mess
5:00AM Monday April 30, 2007
By Brian Rudman
We can protest until the cows come home about the unfairness of Auckland motorists being taxed more for transport improvements than other New Zealanders but, if Finance Minister Michael Cullen cannot be turned, then a flat levy on fuel sales is the most cost-effective and efficient way of doing it.
It is also the fairest because it acknowledges that Auckland's transport network is an organic whole and that a new bridge across the Manukau, or more park and ride facilities in Albany, will improve circulation throughout the region.
Tolling, which hopefully has been ditched as a funding option, is not only selectively punitive, picking off users on just one artery of the network, but is also a grossly inefficient collection method, with much of the money immediately frittered away on billing, collecting and chasing bad debts. To say nothing of the establishments costs for roading authorities and motorists, who would have to put transponders in their vehicles.
Of course, this being Auckland, the leak about a 10c-a-litre fuel tax being likely in next month's Budget had hardly hit the Herald headlines than the region's political warlords were circling the honeypot, jostling for their slice of the action.
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