Documents show the City Rail Link in Auckland will cost $220 million a year once it's operational in 2026, and for Aucklanders, it'll mean rates rises.
The figure come from a proposal by Mayor Wayne Brown as Auckland Council prepares a 10-year budget strategy.
The City Rail Link is a $5.5 billion project - a 3.45km twin-tunnel underground rail link up to 42 metres below the city centre.
A billion-dollar blow-out and a decade worth of construction will all be worth it, once the City Rail Link finally launches, former Auckland City Councillor Graeme Easte told Newshub.
"The potential to double the capacity of the entire rail network," Easte, a founding member of Campaign for Better Transport, said.
But a rail system of this scale comes at a grand price. When it opens in 2026, the CRL will cost $220m a year, accounting for about 10 percent of annual rates. So, rates would need to go up.
Mayor Brown's proposal to Auckland Council's Budget Committee, is to start with a rise of 7.5 percent in the 2024 financial year, 3.5 percent the following year, then 8 percent in 2026, before falling to levels close to inflation for the remaining seven years.
"The bulk of that is actually finance costs because the council's been forced into using borrowed money to pay its share," Easte said.
The Budget Committee will meet this Wednesday to consult on the budget strategy for the next decade, and decide whether to endorse Mayor Brown's proposal.
Public consultation is scheduled for February and the final plan will be signed off in June to enable rates to be set for the coming years.
The council faces the looming loss of the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax, equivalent to 7 percent of rates, and the cost of flood-stricken home buyouts.
Auckland Councillor Alf Filipaina isn't opposed to rates rises.
"I think all the options should be on the table," he told Newshub.
But Filipaina questions how the Mayor plans to generate cash, including leasing port operations.
"We haven't got enough information."
The Mayor also wants to slash the budget on raised crossings to save $80 million.
"You imagine the injuries," Filipaina said. "It would be unthinkable, if it wasn't for those raised pedestrian crossings."
But for many Aucklanders, higher rates are unthinkable too, and there's no slowing down the big expenses heading the city's way.
