The infrastructure minister wants more private sector financing, such as public-private partnerships (PPPs), to pay for major projects.
In a speech to Local government New Zealand on Thursday night, Chris Bishop said he wanted government grant funding to become a last resort for councils.
"Infrastructure has to be paid for and at the moment, it’s largely paid for by the Crown - which is taxpayers - or it’s paid for by ratepayers. And what we’re saying is that user-pays has a role to play here as well. Things like water metres, things like congestion pricing in our major cities and things like toll roads.
*won’t buy our way out, despite the government being able to borrow at far lower rates than anyone else.
Tolls for new roads are whatever, the RoNs are an enormous waste of money anyway. Let the car-brained idiots who want them pay for them.
PPPs are just a scam for the government to pretend like they’re saving money by moving the cost to a different budget line item so they don’t show up as government debt. They cost far more in the long run, look at Transmission Gully.