Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is expected to unveil his plans to address a $325 million budget hole this morning. Photo: RNZ/Angus Dreaver
An Auckland councillor who is in favour of selling off the council's holding in Auckland Airport says the move would be a "common sense" solution to the council's debt woes.
"I'm not in favour of just acquiring more debt" - Auckland councillor Maurice Williamson
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is expected to unveil his plans to address a $325 million budget hole.
That will include a bid to sell off the council's 18 percent share in strategic asset Auckland Airport.
Councillor Maurice Williamson is in favour of the proposal but told Morning Report he did not know whether the mayor had the votes for the sale.
Council differed from Parliament, where votes for and against proposals could be ascertained in advance by party whips, he said.
"You've got 20 councillors and a mayor, and every one of them has a right to do whatever they want and I can't tell you what any one of those other 20 people will do on the day."
Williamson said he hoped councillors would back the move to sell the shares but it was "too early to call".
"I think it's common sense," he said of the proposal.
Without the sale, the council would be forced to make "unpleasant" cuts to services or to raise more debt in order to stick to a commitment many councillors had made "that rates shouldn't go above inflation, which is 7 percent or thereabouts", Williamson added.
"It's just reality. If you don't sell the airport shares you've got two levers left in play: one is to reinstate all those cuts and make cuts to our spending, or the second one is to push debt through the roof."
Auckland councillor Maurice Williamson says the proposal to sell off the council's 18 percent share in Auckland Airport is 'common sense'. Photo: Getty Images
Williamson said while additional debt could be raised, he was not in favour of that option as the council was spending $1.5 million a day servicing the debt it already had.
"We've got $11.9 billion of debt on the books so I'm not in favour of just acquiring more debt."
Council spending had to be reined in at some stage, he said.
"There's literally a time when every family has to say 'we've put too much on the credit card, we've got to stop spending'."
Morning Report invited several councillors believed to be in favour of keeping the airport shares to appear on the programme this morning.
None of them accepted.