Govt should pay for roads

“Finding the money to pay for roads should be easy. But the options being put forward by submitters to the New Zealand Transport Authority (NZTA) funding subsidies review lack imagination, show little knowledge of history, and will be more expensive for ratepayers” said Democrats for Social Credit’s Transport spokesman David Wilson.

“Concerns expressed by Local Government NZ (LGNZ) are valid: it’s unfair for local government to carry the cost of building and maintaining New Zealand’s road network. Proposed reshuffling of the Funding Assistance Rates (FAR) allocations will create disparities and overlooks the most obvious solution.

“Provision exists in the Public Finance Act 1989 (clauses 46 & 54) for the Minister, on behalf of the Crown, to ‘borrow money….in the public interest’ from ‘any person, organisation or government’ and ‘on any terms and conditions that the Minister thinks fit’.

“So the Minister may utilise the publicly owned Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) to draw down interest free loans to meet the development and maintenance costs of our roading network.

“The RBNZ has been the source of funding on many occasions in the past. It’s paid for capital works ranging from State housing, hospitals, schools, and road & bridge building.

“The work needed to find the money to pay for infrastructure development is in lobbying the Government to abandon its support for the private commercial banking sector, to let go of its preference for interest bearing loans, and to genuinely act in the public interest by sourcing the money from the RBNZ.

“LGNZ must reject the government’s fixation with the private banking system as being unfair, unsustainable, and contrary to the public interest.

“All taxation gathered for roads should be spent on roads and the shortfall should be made up by central government using a Reserve Bank line of credit.”

Mr Wilson noted that the DSC wouldn’t hesitate to utilise the RBNZ’s credit facilities to sustainably fund the development and maintenance of transport infrastructure as a key aspect of establishing a social credit economy in New Zealand.

ENDS

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