Kerre Woodham: Wayne Brown is right; you can't just print money and we've seen what happens when you do

Most of us are doing it at the moment, aren't we? Crunching the numbers of the household budget, seeing where we can make economies?

Whether there's any way we can earn a little bit extra. Sorting out what the necessities might be, what the nice to haves are.

The Mayor of Auckland is no different. He released his final budget proposal about half an hour ago, a day later than planned, and one of his main drivers is privatising the $2.2 billion shareholding in Auckland Airport.

He wants the Council to offload that. He's willing to offer sweeteners to councillors to get his budget and the sale of the shares across the line.

He'll reinstate funding for social services and the arts, as well as a $16 million budget cut for local boards. And he'll increase the pay of bus drivers to $30.00 an hour in an attempt to restore suspended services.

But to get the sweetners, to get the lollies, councillors are going to have to vote to offload the shares, which is, Mayor Brown says when he was talking to Mike Hosking this morning, the best investment the council could make for itself.

Wayne Brown's quite right. You can't just print money and we've seen what happens when you do that.

You have to find the economies in real time, in real life. The way Wayne Brown puts it, selling the shares makes sense. Why would you borrow all of that money and pay $100 million in interest a year, to earn $20 - $30 million back?

Is it that there is an expectation that the shares are going to increase in value to the point that you'll make $200 million in dividends? But when?

And can you afford to play the stock market with other people's rate money?  I wouldn't have thought so.  

I get the selling of the shares. I'm all for it. Unless you can give me a compelling reason otherwise. And I get that you have to raise rates, but just putting it on the shoulders of business again might be the straw that breaks the camel's back for many businesses.

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