Did you know that the Mayor’s budget proposal will dramatically reduce funding for all natural environment work in the region and most projects on Aotea? And did you know the Aotea Great Barrier Local Board’s budget is being cut by more per capita than any other board?
You can help stop this proposal going ahead. Just click the link and fill out the submission form online. Every individual submission counts, so please give it a go, and encourage your friends and family to do the same. We need more submissions to support investment in community and environmental projects – or we will lose this funding.
Please make a submission here: HAVE YOUR SAY.
The cut off to do it is 11pm, Tuesday 28 March.
You don’t have to answer every question in the form, but you might want to because most have some direct or indirect impact on environmental funding. We have put some guidelines together for you to use/cut and paste if you would like to. We did not hold back, because this proposal is a misinformed assault on council support for the natural environment and communities.
In a nutshell…
Every Auckland Council budget or grant that supports this trust and others like it to carry out community conservation, and also some regional biodiversity protection and biosecurity activity is going to be reduced or cut. Cuts to staff who support this work are likely. Combined with the proposal to pause the collection of the Natural Environment Targeted Rate (NETR), it will very probably mean no new projects can be funded. Nor will any additional funding be available for existing work. Combined with the (frankly) savage cuts to the Aotea Great Barrier Local Board’s community and environment budgets, this will make it much tougher for many of our amazing projects to carry on. Just when we’re getting good at this stuff!
Individual submissions really do count in the consultation process so please jump online and fill out the form by 11pm on Tuesday 28 March.