New Zealand Transport Agency cuts road funding for some councils

The NZ Transport Agency is cutting the amount of funding it gives some councils to help with essential infrastructure, prompting calls for a review of how the calculations were done.Among them is Tararua District Council, which said the agency's decision to cut it's contribution to the roading network will cost the district more than $1.2 million over three years.Tararua District Council is one of more than a dozen councils that have seen their Financial Assistance Rate, or FAR, from NZTA reduced over the next three years.The move has left councils struggling see how they can fund road maintenance, public transport and other costs at a time they're also being forced to keep rates down.NZTA currently contributes 73 cents towards every eligible dollar spent on Tararua roads. Next year that will reduce to 72 cents, before dropping again to 71 cents for the following two years.Tararua District Mayor Scot Gilmore told Checkpoint while a couple of cents doesn't sound like a lot, it will all add up."It's going to be close to $1.3 million for our ratepayers... we've got to make a decision of whether our ratepayers can afford that and whether we're not going to be able to invest as much in our roads as what we need to. So it leaves us some really tough choices."Gilmore said the funding amount was calculated using metrics of population size and how much roading a district has."The Tararua district, if you laid our roads end on end, they would go right from the top of the North Island right down to the bottom of the South Island. So we've got almost 2,000 kilometres of roading that we're looking after."He said it was a huge amount of roading to look after with a fairly low rural population base.Gilmore said the reasons NZTA had given for the cut were an increase in the number of ratable units, a number which he said was "very small", as well as a reduction of reported deprivation."We're sort of looking into those statistics... we certainly don't feel that on the ground."While the council was being told by residents that they need to be doing more on the roads, Gilmore said they were in a difficult position."The two choices that we really have in front of us is to reduce investment in our critical infrastructure or to ask our ratepayers to cover the funding cut."He said the council intended on having discussions with the community about the options moving forward.With rates caps potentially looming, Gilmore said it would be tough having such a huge shortfall."Because we've got such a huge, huge length of roads, over 2,000 kilometres, we have to make sure that we're investing in those continually. If we take our eye off the ball with that, it's just going to end up being more expensive for everyone down the track."He said they would be writing to the board of NZTA and the minister to ask for a review on the decision.The Far North District council was also facing cuts, despite previously asking for an increase to it's FAR.Far North District Councillor Anne Court told Checkpoint that the amount lost in FAR co-payments was subject to final checks by the finance team but it was roughly $1.4 million."This kicks in next year from our long term plan which is when rates capping kicks in, so what do we do? Find another $1.4 million from rate payers, or do we cut programmes or reduce levels of service."It's a scary conversation we have to have."The Far North has the largest roading network in the North Island, with 723 bridges and 28,000 culverts but just 11 ratepayers per kilometre of road, she said.The Council had made a case for an increase to its FAR - "an enormous piece of work for our staff" - but had not put a specific number on the increase sought.Instead, NZTA has decreased the co-payment from 71 cents towards every dollar spent over the past three years, to 70 cents for the next three years (2027-2030).The Council was planning to go back to NZTA to "test their assumptions and modelling".The Buller District Council said its Funding Assistance Rate would progressively reduce from 75 percent in the current year to 74 percent in 2027/28, 73 percent in 2028/29, and 72 percent in 2029/30.It was too early to put a single dollar value on the change.However, NZTA has separately confirmed that the Karamea Special Purpose Road will retain a 100 percent FAR for maintenance, operations, renewals, emergency works and low-cost/low-risk activities throughout the period.Buller District Mayor Chris Russell said that provided certainty for the community."These roads are essential lifelines for northern Buller, connecting residents, businesses, emergency services and visitors. Had the funding rate been reduced, the cost would ultimately have fallen on local ratepayers or required Council to reconsider the timing and scope of planned maintenance and renewal work."NZTA said councils could raise concerns about their new Funding Assistance Rates calculations, but those rates were set using a national methodology and may not result in any change."The FAR's have been recalculated using updated affordability data to provide a nationally consistent, transparent basis for comparing councils' ability to meet their share of land transport costs."It acknowledged those receiving reduced funding would feel an effect but noted the reductions would be a maximum of 1 percent a year, to help councils plan and manage the changes.Transport Minister Chris Bishop said the government was not cutting funding but making ''difficult decisions'' about rates based on the circumstances of each council.