Wellington International Airport. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Wellington City Council may have to triple its debt ceiling and slash hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of capital projects if it does not go ahead with selling its airport shares.
As part of the city council's long-term plan the council agreed to sell its 34 percent stake in the Wellington International Airport to establish a new perpetual investment fund, designed to help the city's recovery following a future natural disaster, address the council's insurance risk and reduce reliance on future borrowing.
But, in August the fund faced an uncertain future when a notice of motion was signed by nine councillors to shoot down the sale.
In agenda documents released ahead of the meeting to vote on the notice of motion next week, council officers recommended councillors rejected it.
The staff stated if councillors backed the motion and did not sell the shares, there would be two scenarios councillors would have to consider.
One would be almost doubling their debt ceiling from $272 million to $500 million and cutting capital project spend by $400 million; the other would be tripling the council's debt ceiling to $750 million and slashing capital spend by $600 million.
Council staff said projects in the capital programme that could be cut include the cycleways programme, Golden Mile Upgrades, the Kiwi Point Quarry upgrade and the Khandallah Pool strengthening, which campaigners fought to save.
(h) What's next?
If councillors back the notice of motion at the meeting on 10 October, all work on the airports shares sale would stop and staff would have to develop a long-term plan amendment process, which they would provide advice on to council next month.
By December, the council would need to develop options for consultation - which would include detail regarding capital programme changes.
The options would have to include a full sale, partial sale, and no sale choices.
A full programme of community consultation would be required, and the amended long-term plan would have to be audited prior to final adoption by June next year.
If the councillors did not support the notice of motion, the sale would go ahead as planned, with council staff providing advice on a sales strategy by December.
