Have your say: Auckland Council annual budget 2017 to 2018

Transcription

1 Have your say: Auckland Council annual budget 2017 to 2018 We want to know what you think about our budget for the 2017 to 2018 year Easy Read 0

2 What is in this book? Before you start Page 3 Hard words Page 4 What is this book about: Page 5 A message from your mayor Page 13 A message from a Councillor Page 20 Keeping rate rises low for all rate payers Page 22 Getting rates right for all rate payers Page 30 1

3 Ways we can make Auckland a good place to visit Page 33 How do we pay for things as Auckland gets bigger? Page 37 A living wage for Auckland Council staff Page 41 Other things to think about Page 46 Have your say Page 51 List of hard words Page 58 2

4 Before you start This is a long document. While it is written in Easy Read it can be hard for some people to read a document this long. Some things you can do to make it easier are: read it a few pages at a time have someone to assist you to understand it. 3

5 Hard words There are some words in this book that may be hard to understand. These words are in large print. Go to the List of hard words on page 58 if you want to know what the words mean. 4

6 What is this book about? Auckland Council wants Auckland to be a good city to live in. Every year Auckland Council asks people living in Auckland what they think about how we spend money to make Auckland a better place to live. Auckland Council have made a budget for the 2017 to 2018 year. A budget is a plan about how to spend money that somebody or something has. 5

7 To make our budget we need to know: how much money we have to spend over the 2017 to 2018 year what things we have to spend the money on what other things we would like to spend money on if there is money left over from paying for the things we need to pay for. Auckland Council makes a budget every year. This book tells you about what we are thinking about spending money on. We want to know what you think about this. 6

8 You have 1 month to tell us what you think about how we spend money. You can tell Auckland Council what you think from 27 February 2017 to 27 March

9 How does Auckland Council get money? Auckland Council gets some of its money from rates. Aucklanders who own a house or business pay money to Auckland Council for our services. This money is called rates. People who pay rates are called rate payers. Rates help to pay for some of the infrastructure in Auckland. Auckland Council pays for a lot of the infrastructure Auckland needs. 8

10 Rates also help to pay for other things like: Auckland Museum community centres festivals like the Lantern Festival libraries MOTAT movies and music in the park parks and sports fields. 9

11 This book tells you about our budget for the 2017 to 2018 year. It tells you: how much money we have to spend what we are thinking about spending the money on. 10

12 Auckland Council wants you to tell us if you think we are spending the money on the right things. There is more than one way to tell us. You can: write in the spaces in this booklet and send it back to us go to a Have your say meeting to find out more and tell us what you think. This book is a short version of the full budget. 11

13 You can read the full budget by visiting: your library your local service centre your local board office. Go to page 51 to find out all the ways you can tell us what you think about our 2017 to 2018 budget. 12

14 A message from your Mayor Auckland is growing. There are: more people living in our city lots of things happening in our city. This tells us that Auckland is doing well. 13

15 People want to live a city that: is beautiful is diverse has lots of different people living in it has lots of things to see and do. These are all good things. Auckland is growing by nearly 900 people a week. This means nearly 900 more people come to live in Auckland each week. 14

16 Growing so quickly can make some things hard. It makes it hard for many Aucklanders to live in a house. It makes more traffic on the roads. Growing so fast means that there is not enough infrastructure. Infrastructure is all the things that a city needs to make it a good place for people to live and work. We need to spend more money on infrastructure. 15

17 I do not want rate payers to have to pay for all the infrastructure we need. I do not want rate payers to pay too much more in rates. I do not want rates to go up more than 2.5 per cent. I am thinking of other ways to get money to pay for things Auckland needs. 16

18 These ways could be to get: people visiting Auckland to pay more money for the room they stay in while in Auckland businesses that build big developments to pay for things they need from Auckland Council when they buy land to build on. 17

19 Important things we need to do are: find places to live for people who have nowhere to live make it better for people who are finding it hard to find a house to live in pay a living wage to people who are working at Auckland Council and are not earning much money. 18

20 Councillors do not always think the same way about something. All Auckland Council Councillors think that the questions in this book are good. Telling us what you think about our budget helps us to make the best choices about how to spend our money. It will help to make our city better. 19

21 A message from a Councillor Auckland is going through a very exciting time. It is growing and changing quickly. The way we get money and pay for things to make Auckland better are important things to think about. People think different things about how to get money and what to spend it on. This book tells you how to have your say about how Auckland Council plans to spend money to make Auckland a better city to live in. 20

22 There are lots of ways for you to tell us what you think. Go to page 51 to find out all the ways to do this. Tell us in the way that is best for you. The important thing for Auckland is how we look after our future. I ask you to take the time to help us shape our city. 21

23 Keeping rate rises low for all rate payers Auckland Council need rates to pay for the many things our city needs to make it a good place to live. We work hard to try to keep the rates low so people do not have to pay too much money. We also have to make sure we have money to: make our services better make sure all Aucklanders can get our services 22

24 Auckland Council made a 10 year budget. This budget said that our rates would go up by 3.5 percent in the 2017 to 2018 year. When we looked at what Auckland Council needed to spend this year we saw that we can save money. We found out that we can save 15 million dollars. 23

25 This means: we will be able to do what we need to it will cost 15 million dollars less than it was going to cost to do the things we need to do. For our 2017 to 2018 budget we have 3 choices to make about how much more rates will cost. Choice 1: you pay 3.5 percent more money in rates Choice 2: you pay 2.5 per cent more money in rates Choice 3: you pay 2 per cent more money in rates. 24

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27 Choice 1: you pay 3.5 per cent more money in rates The Auckland Council would get rate payers to pay 3.5 percent more money in rates. This means that rate payers would have to pay about $1.55 more a week for rates. This means we can pay for more things to make Auckland a better place to live. 26

28 These things include: public transport walking and cycling tracks sports fields and parks. If Auckland Council gets more money in rates we will have more money to spend to make Auckland a better place. 27

29 Choice 2: you pay 2.5 per cent more money in rates The Auckland Council would get rate payers to pay 2.5 per cent more money in rates. This means that rate payers would have to pay about $1.10 more a week for rates. Auckland Council will use the rates and the 15 million dollars to deliver all the services we need. There will be no extra services. 28

30 Choice 3: you pay 2 per cent more money in rates The Auckland Council would get rate payers to pay 2 per cent more money in rates. This means that rate payers would have to pay about 90 cents more a week for rates. If this happens it means that we will not be able to give good services to all Aucklanders. This is because we will not get enough money to spend on the things we need to make Auckland a better place to live. 29

31 You can tell us what you think about Keeping rate rises low for all rate payers. You can: write the answer to question 1 in your Question and answer book go online to have your say: 30

32 Getting rates right for all rate payers Businesses pay more rates than people living in houses. This is because businesses use a lot of Auckland Council services. We think it is the right thing for businesses to pay more rates. But Auckland Council think that businesses pay too much money in rates at the moment. This year we think that it is right for all rate payers to pay the same rise in rates. Businesses will still pay more rates than a rate payer living in a house. 31

33 It means rate rises will not be too much for all rate payers. We would like to know what you think about this. 32

34 You can tell us what you think about Getting rates right for all rate payers. You can: write the answer to question 2 in your Question and answer book go online to have your say: 33

35 Ways we can make Auckland a good place to visit Lots of people like to visit Auckland. People come from other cities in New Zealand and other countries to visit Auckland. These visitors are called tourists. Auckland Council tries to get lots of tourists to visit Auckland. We spend 20 to 30 million dollars each year to show the world that Auckland is a great place to visit. Tourists visiting Auckland is good for Auckland. 34

36 This is because tourists spend money in local businesses here. We need to make more infrastructure so tourists have a good time when they visit Auckland. We need to think of ways to make some money to pay for this infrastructure. Tourists stay in hotels or motels when they visit Auckland. One way is to get businesses to get tourists to pay an extra 6 to 10 dollars a night when they stay. The businesses would give this money to Auckland Council. 35

37 This would make the Auckland Council 250 to 300 million dollars over 10 years. This means we could spend money on things that Auckland needs to be a good city to visit. One of these things would be to make better roads. Better roads mean less traffic jams. A group of people working in places like hotels and motels are getting together. This group would tell us where we should spend money to make Auckland a good place to visit. 36

38 We want to know if you think this is a good idea. You can: write the answer to question 3 in your Question and answer book go online to have your say: 37

39 How do we pay for things as Auckland gets bigger? Auckland is the fastest growing place in the country. We think that in 30 years there will be 2.2 million people living in Auckland. All the new people coming to live in Auckland will need a place to live. This means we will need to build more houses. People will need to be able to have enough money to live in houses. 38

40 We need to find ways to make sure that people living in Auckland have the right money to live in houses. One way to do this is to get businesses building big housing developments to follow some new rules. This means that when developers buy land to build buildings they have to pay Auckland Council for services that it needs before they start building. This means that when developers buy land they pay for: the services they need at the same time the infrastructure at the same time. 39

41 This will make developers build buildings on the land and not leave the land empty. If we do this we would not have to get more money from rate payers. We need to change these rules so rate payers will not have to pay more money. We will talk to developers and other people who work in building businesses to find out how we can do this. 40

42 We want you to tell us if you think this is a good idea. You can: write the answer to question 4 in your Question and answer book go online to have your say: 41

43 A living wage for Auckland Council staff It costs a lot of money to live in Auckland. It is important that people who work in Auckland get enough money to live. If they do not get enough money they will have to leave Auckland to live in another place. People need to earn a living wage to be able to live in Auckland. 42

44 A living wage means that a worker gets enough money to: live a good life have a place to live in be able to do all the things they want to do in their community. The living wage for Auckland in 2017 to 2018 is $20.20 for each hour worked. Today about 2200 Auckland Council staff get less than $20.20 for each hour they work. 43

45 We are thinking about changing our pay rules to give a living wage for all workers in Auckland Council who: get less than $20.20 for each hour worked are not working for the Ports of Auckland are not contract staff. This living wage plan will take 3 years to do. It will cost about 2.5 million dollars in the 2017 to 2018 year. 44

46 Then it will cost 7 million dollars for the next 2 years. The money to pay our staff a living wage will come from the savings we have made. We will not get this money from rate payers. 45

47 We want to know if you think this is a good idea. You can: write the answer to question 5 in your Question and answer book go online to have your say: 46

48 Other things to think about Rubbish collections and charges We want to make the rubbish services the same everywhere in Auckland. This means we will give people a choice of different sized bins to put rubbish and recylcing in. People will be able to ask for an extra recycling bin. This extra bin will cost $ People who live in what used to be Manukau City Council can ask for a bigger rubbish bin. 47

49 This will cost $55. We will also make changes to the way cardboard and paper is collected in some places. 48

50 Transport and travel in Auckland As more people live in Auckland more public transport is needed. Auckland Transport is making a plan for the best way to get into the city centre from nearby suburbs and the airport. This means land will need to be bought for the roads and railways to be built on. This will cost about 40 million dollars in the 2017 to 2018 budget. 49

51 Homelessness Lots of people in Auckland do not have a home to live in. We want to bring people and groups together to talk about this big problem. These groups will include: government organisations non-government organisations businesses that help people who are homeless groups that support homeless people. 50

52 This will cost about 500 thousand dollars in the 2017 to 2018 budget. There is more information about these things on this website: 51

53 Have your say Auckland Council want to hear what you have to say about 2017 to 2018 budget. You need to tell us what you think from 27 February to 4pm 27 March There are different ways you can tell us about what you think. You can tell us what you think in a way that is best for you. 52

54 You can do it: 1 In writing 2 Using social media like Facebook and Twitter 3 In person. 53

55 1: In writing Fill out the answers in the question book and send it to: Annual Budget 2017/2018 Auckland Council Freepost Authority Private Bag , Auckland 1142 The freepost number means you do not need a stamp. 54

56 You can also find the forms at: libraries your local service centres your local board office. Write in the online form at: You can also print out the form and post it to us. 55

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58 2: Social media You can use Facebook or Twitter to tell us what you think about our budget. Facebook You can: A. Write something on our Facebook page. Visit facebook.com/aklcouncil Put Annual Budget Feed or #AklBudget B. Send us a private message by using Facebook facbook.com/aklcouncil make sure you put Annual Budget Feedback or #AklBudget 57

59 Twitter A. You can write a tweet and make sure you and include #AklBudget. B. Send a message and include Auckland Budget Feedback or AklBudget. 58

60 3: In person Come and talk to us at one of our Have your say meetings. This is a time for you to tell you what you think about our budget. You can also hear Auckland Councillors talk about what is happening. These meetings are taking place from 27 February to March 27 March. 59

61 Hard words Budget A budget is a plan about how to spend money that somebody or something has. To make a budget you need to know: how much money you have how much money you are going to get by working or saving how long the budget is going to last what you plan to spend the money on. 60

62 Development A development is a big building project. Building developments are when developers build things like: blocks of apartments a big group of houses a tall block of offices a shopping centre. 61

63 Infrastructure Infrastructure means the things a city needs to make it a good place to live and work in. Infrastructure means things like: bridges buildings like hospitals and airports communication systems like wire and cables for the internet electricity supply gas supply 62

64 pathways public toilets roads rubbish and recycling collections sewerage takes waste water away from our houses water supply. 63

65 Living wage A living wage gives people enough money to live a good life. Lots of people who work do not make enough money to live a good life. Many people cannot pay all their bills. Some do not have enough food to eat. A living wage pays a worker the right money to be able to pay: to live in a house for all their bills have enough food to eat 64

66 pay for the things they need to have a good life. Percent Percent is a way of saying a part of something. If you own 100 percent of something that means you own all of it. If you own 50 percent of something this means you own half of it. 65

67 This information has been translated into Easy Read by People First New Zealand Inc. Ngā Tāngata Tuatahi 66