Rudman is Right... Mostly

Brian Rudman has an interesting column in today's Herald in which he discusses Judith Tizard's Auckland Regional Amenities Bill. He rightly points out that the importance of this Bill has largely slipped under the public radar screen.

The Bill sets out to ensure there is secure regional funding for 11 major amenities in Auckland. The issue is that, while most of these amenities are based in Auckland city, they have big benefits for the whole region, and are used by people from across all 7 territorial authorities. Because they're in Auckland city though, the other Council's don't contribute, and the amenities generally struggle to pull together the necessary funding to keep going.

Go here for a full ist of the amenities we're talking about, and more information about the Bill.

The Bill is a sound piece of legislation that will see the different Auckland Council's each paying their fair share (instead of it all being lumped on Auckland City), and give our important amenities a secure financial footing.

Rudman's column goes on to make a few other points that City Vision Talk doesn't necessarily agree with, but at least someone's making informed comment about local body issues!