Alternative Auckland budget to keep airport shares fails in vote

An alternative proposal to retain Auckland Council's stake in the city's airport - by taking on more debt - has failed in a vote as Mayor Wayne Brown and councillors continue debate on amendments into the afternoon.

Today, councillors have been considering whether to accept Wayne Brown's compromise budget proposal or to adopt other alternative proposals - heavily focussed on how many Auckland Airport shares the council will hold.

The amendment failed just after 12.30pm - eight votes to 13 - with little consensus among either the council's left or right-leaning blocs. Other proposals, including a less severe partial shares sale than proposed by Brown, will be debated this afternoon.

It comes amid another marathon meeting as the city's governors discuss the trade-offs needed to patch the council's $325 million budget deficit. Councillors had been given overnight to consider tabled amendments for alternatives.

New proposals have been working with the organisation's funding levers of selling its Auckland Airport shares, additional debt, a higher rates rise, or more spending cuts.

Manukau councillor Lotu Fuli's amendment would have seen airport shares retained and a proposal to consider their sale in the council's 10-year-plan in 2024. The proposal would be funded through additional "short-term debt" and slightly higher rates.

Watch the live council debate below

Yesterday, Brown said he would refuse to compromise on his proposal by taking on substantially more debt, calling it "the essence of financial mismanagement".

Councillors spoke passionately both in favour and against Fuli's proposal.

Albany councillor John Watson said a partial sale would become a "back door to a full sale" and that he "enthusiastically" supported the alternative proposal.

But Rodney councillor Greg Sayers, who supported Brown's original proposal to sell the council's entire airport stake, said taking on more debt was "kicking the can down the road" with additional debt hurting during any unexpected financial "shocks".

North Shore councillor Richard Hills agreed and made an impassioned plea about the mental health of council staff if he didn't vote "responsibly" for change today.

Manurewa-Papakura councillor Angela Dalton backed Fuli's amendment and said the upcoming financial year continued to be unusual and one that the council needed to "get through" first before looking to a major asset sale.

"Our communities are the ones that are sitting in the hardest deprivation, and they do own homes, and they do pay rates," she said.

"They have said they would rather pay higher rates and to take on a bit more debt to get us through these cuts, and to retain the airport shares."

Waitākere councillor Shane Henderson said he would feel "irresponsible" to support Fuli's amendment. He said the council "needed the debt headroom" to make up for infrastructure underinvestment, flooding-related issues, and the City Rail Link project.

Earlier, Brown walked into the meeting wearing a cap with the words: "That's what I do. I fix stuff, and I know things."

In opening the meeting, he then thanked councillors for "respectful and constructive discussion" in the past day.

Yesterday, only three supported Brown's original tabled proposal to sell all of the council's airport shares, leading the mayor to propose, what he dubbed, his "latest, latest budget" that saw a compromise to only partially sell the organisation's stake.

"I believe this proposal is the best, prudent, achievable, and balanced budget for Aucklanders," the mayor said. "I've compromised on every funding lever."

The council is required by law to have a balanced budget and chief financial officer Peter Gudsell said spending cuts and rates were the primary movable pieces without additional revenue from selling airport shares or taking on more debt.

"Every $20 million is either 1% of rates, or it comes out of expenses, so to balance the operating budget in one way or another. It would have to be funded either from rates increases or from an expense reduction," he said today.

Brown said yesterday: "I've moved my new proposal to do a partial sale of the airport shares. This is an option available to us because we did consult on it, it has been audited, and it was supported."

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