Personally I think the level of petrol tax should vary automatically to fund all road projects that pass a certain benefit:cost ratio.

Personally I’m sick of big government pissing away taxpayer’s money on worthless projects just to make some MP look big.

What was one of the first things Winston Peters did after becoming Treasurer in 1996? Put petrol duty up. How did that work out?

National are just looking for an easy way to gather additional revenue to fund their “BIG GOVERNMENT projects.
Expect another tax grab in the budget. It will most like be Alcohol Duty to rise by some large silly amount with some equally lame statement on social grounds to justify the increase.

Sorry OECD I must be thick I can’t get the punchline.

Andrew Ryan is a character from the computer game “Bioshock”.

Rapture is an underwater haven he built out in the middle of the ocean in order to build his ideal new society away from the grasping hands of collectivists.

A: when a for profit organization invests in extra capacity and then all the extra capacity is used up by customers they regard themselves as being extremely successful, and plan another round of expansion.

When a public service organization is in the exact same situation, they decide that “that solution didn’t work” and it’s pointless, and they should maybe try reducing capacity instead.

In many respects this decision makes funding the same as for electricity. People in Wellington and the South Island are equally funding the $1 billion plus investments Taupo north as those in the areas benefitting.

Saying that I’m worried by what I perceive to be a ‘more roads’ mentality. I was (un) lucky enough to work with LTNZ for a number of years and was struck by the ‘roading’ mentality. Their approach to everything was more roads, more roads. Emmissions problem? Simple – build more roads to get traffic flowing more freely. Gridlock in Wellington? Build more roads. Public Transport was for poor people. Cycling was for kamikazes. And walking was for Ian Botham. Those guys are really stuck in the ’60’s. Isn’t the international experience clear enough? Build more roads, get more cars. Anybody been on the London Ring Road recently? Anyway I hope the Minister gets his head round that. Build more roads, get more cars. How can that be productivity-enhancing? It’s pretty simple isn’t it? Maybe I’m missing something? Can anybody enlighten me?

Forgot to mention the North Shore Mayor is Labour’s best mate right now & political dynamite for National, what a moron.

I also agree that the universal tax increase is more efficient. No-One loses, had the status quo remained every Regional Council in the country including those in the South Island would have increased their levy to the maximum allowed.

Only if you agree that the South Island should pay a premium in road tax given that up until now those who live in the upper part of the North Island have subsidised your roads for the last fifty or so years.

Really, you guys should just get over it.

“What is the difference between a man and a parasite? A man builds. A parasite asks ‘Where is my share?’ A man creates. A parasite says, ‘What will the neighbors think?’ A man invents. A parasite says, ‘Watch out, or you might tread on the toes of God…”

“On the surface, the Parasite expects the doctor to heal them for free, the farmer to feed them out of charity. How little they differ from the pervert who prowls the streets, looking for a victim he can ravish for his grotesque amusement.”

“I believe in no God, no invisible man in the sky. But there is something more powerful than each of us, a combination of our efforts, a Great Chain of industry that unites us. But it is only when we struggle in our own interest that the chain pulls society in the right direction. The chain is too powerful and too mysterious for any government to guide. Any man who tells you different either has his hand in your pocket, or a pistol to your neck.”

“I am Andrew Ryan and I am here to ask you a question: Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?

No, says the man in Washington. It belongs to the poor.
No, says the man in the Vatican. It belongs to God.
No, says the man in Moscow. It belongs to everyone.

I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something
different. I chose the impossible. I chose…
Rapture.”

1. Raise funds for each roading requirement by Government Infrastructure Bond Issues. Place rate at say 1% or even 1.5% abover bank Term Deposits for say 20 yar terms.
2. Use tolls to fund 6 monthly interest payments and eventual maturity repayments

We are hearing Grey Power and other organisations saying that savers are suffering due to the fall in interest rates so it should be easy to have attractive propositions fully subscribed.

Unlike certain nutbars from Canterbury I have no issue with Auckland receiving the vast bulk of money when it comes to roading, I believe that income generated by fuel tax should be used in the areas it is gathered from.

Regional fuel tax is indeed a stupid idea, we do not need to increase fuel tax at all, spend all the money raised by RUC and fuel tax on the roads and there is no problem. There should be no syphoning off to subsidise public transport.

1) It would have created the ludicrous situation of petrol being 13 cents a litre more expensive at the Bombay Service Centre than the Mercer one a few k’s down the freeway.

2) Around half of NZ’s population live within a 2 hour drive of central Auckland. No doubt almost all of these people drive along or through Aucklands freeway system to destinations in Auckland or on the other side of Auckland. Why should the cost of that freeway be born by all of them instead of just the ones living with the regional boundaries.

Well I bloody don’t!

Roading and in fact ALL infrastructure should be paid for by ALL beneficiaries of that infrastructure not just a selected, particularly vulnerable few within that beneficiary group.

Petrol theft should be reduced to GST only with the rest of funding coming from universal taxation.

The truth is that we would be screaming from the roof tops if Labour had been advocating an increase in fuel tax.”

Not a squeak, not a squeak (bar that from Big Bruv) about MORE TAX
Roll over onto your backs and let Key have his way with you, adoring fans!

Cheers, Chris W.