It is said, sooner or later, the pigeons will come home to roost.

In the case of the Auckland Super City the ruffling of feathers is audible and ratepayers have plenty to be concerned about.

Prior to amalgamation Rodney Hide estimated the IT restructure budget to be $220m.
One year later the budget was increased to $500m. Auckland City say the IT project overall, is still within that budget. This being true, why all the fuss about a ‘blowout', unless of course the extra funds needed, will exceed the $500m?

The politicians must come clean about Auckland as after four years, the debt has doubled, the payroll has increased and to account for this, cuts are planned to budgets and services and a 10 per cent rate increase is predicted each
year, for the next 10 years. Apparently, the city is currently under capitalised.

The architects of this schmozzle are Central Government and they must now come to the party and provide a remedy for their actions.

The sharply increased cost of everything, including housing, is outrageous and to make matters worse, with the demise of the Auckland Regional Council, the environment is
being neglected. Environmental monitoring is no longer in the frame and when the Resource management Act is gutted by the Government, as planned, there will be no holding Auckland back. It will become one of the' most unaffordable and ‘unliveable cities' in the world.

Doug Owens,
Tauranga councillor, BOPRC.