The Auckland debate: is big city governance always this difficult?

Abstract

Governing fast-growing metropolitan areas is always difficult, and the history of Auckland governance is no exception. This is so for no other reason than the fact that they keep growing: as population increases the alignment of urban and jurisdictional boundaries breaks down, creating problems of coordination and fragmenting decision making. In addition, the increasingly complex pattern of councils results in tax exporting and what economists describe as spill overs, where peri-urban councils benefit from the expenditure of their larger neighbours while areas further out question the local benefits of centrally-based facilities. Consider, for example, the debate over the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act 2008.