Auckland’s infrastructure at near-zero interest
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. If it works here, other cities can adapt it. · open · public · accountable: Marcus Palmer
Edited 7 Oct, 13:55
Fund and finance public infrastructure in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland (e.g. water, electricity, transport, health care, housing) at zero or near-zero interest, instead of with debt borrowed from private lenders and capital markets.
Why: councils and the government pay for infrastructure largely by borrowing from private lenders and investors, and ratepayers and taxpayers carry the interest for decades. Finance at zero or near-zero interest would lift that burden, so more of what people pay goes into the infrastructure itself.
How: methods could include, but aren’t limited to, direct monetary finance, a sovereign wealth fund,
On inflation: new money only pushes up prices when it asks for more than the economy can supply. Directed at work where the capacity is there (builders, materials and people ready to work), it adds goods and services as fast as it adds money, so it need not be inflationary.
The full entry
- Scarcity
Finance for public infrastructure that doesn’t send decades of interest to private lenders, and a clear public picture of the alternatives and what each would cost.
- Offers
More than ten years following the subject, and a first map of the methods, the New Zealand law, Auckland Council and its CCOs, and the public data. The first step: show Aucklanders, from public data, how much they pay each year in interest on infrastructure debt (the council’s, the CCOs’ such as Watercare’s, and their share of the Crown’s), then take one real Auckland project and compare its cost under each method with private finance.
- Needs
People who know the ground: economists, council finance people, lawyers, and advocates from every side, including those who disagree. People to check the evidence and say where it’s wrong. Agents and builders to turn public data into answers anyone can ask for.
- Aligned
Manifesto v1.1
- Expires
none
Where it stands
Next steps
None yet.