Eden Stadium funding
John Banks seems to be bit too excited about his re-election to Auckland's mayoralty. In the news today, he said that he would pull out ratepayers' fund from Mt Eden Statdium upgrade.
We don't live in a world where things just happens without cash, so who should pay for the 2011 World Cup?
I'm bit left, but I also like right wing sometimes: they do things on common sense, not "social values" . My version of common sense is that, people and groups who will benefit from the stadium upgrade should pay. Based on that, here is the list of people and groups that I think should pay, from the biggest payer to smallest.
Central Government -Rugby world cup and Mt Eden statdium are the issues of national importance. The cup will bring benefit to the whole country, and central government should come up with the largest share of funding to represent the benefit that it will receive (increased tax, tourism...)
NZRU - no explanation needed.
Businesses in Auckland - clearly, some businesses will benefit from the cup.
and, lastly, I cannot see any benefit that an average Aucklander can get from this. An increased wage? Possibly, but that also means more taxes paid. In fact, people are more likely to get annoyed by increased amount of car and pedestrian traffic.
If interests of people are harmed by an activity or a building upgrade, what is the proper way to compansate those people? You pay them.
That concludes my opinion.
