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Speaker 1: I don't mind paying. If I'm being honest with you,

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Speaker 1: completely honest with you, I don't mind paying the train

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Speaker 1: tax in Auckland, even though I won't be using the

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Speaker 1: damn thing. Rates are going up. If you didn't see

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Speaker 1: this yesterday, rates are going up seven point nine percent

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Speaker 1: next year. Now, let's be honest. It's like wool was

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Speaker 1: selling butt of for seven ninety nine. It's eight percent,

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Speaker 1: all right, We're talking about eight percent. Wayne Brown is

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Speaker 1: the eight percent man, Mister fix it is hitting us

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Speaker 1: in the pocket, and it will hurt an extra three

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Speaker 1: hundred and twenty dollars for your average rate payer. The

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Speaker 1: average rate goes from four thousand, fifty five to four thousand,

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Speaker 1: three hundred and seventy five. If you didn't have to

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Speaker 1: subsidize the city rail links operations, that would be zero,

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Speaker 1: a zero percent rate increase. Now, usually something like this

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Speaker 1: would get me angry. I would come in and I

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Speaker 1: would sort of get random, and my blood pressure would

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Speaker 1: go up, and I'd get a bit stressed. I'd be

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Speaker 1: tempted to go tag the side of a locomotive in

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Speaker 1: the middle of the night with a cartoon of Wayne Brown,

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Speaker 1: you know, saying something like let's f Auckland just take

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Speaker 1: off the IA from his campaign slogan. But I'm not

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Speaker 1: doing that. I'm calming myself down and remembering I don't

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Speaker 1: generally use public transport. It's just not convenient for me

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Speaker 1: to do so because of timing and location. We're basically

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Speaker 1: paying for a service for commuters for less than the

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Speaker 1: cost that it is to operate it. Right. But if

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Speaker 1: we don't do that, then it won't get used. And

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Speaker 1: if it doesn't get used, then the roads will stay

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Speaker 1: just as clogged as they are now. If the roads

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Speaker 1: stage just as clogged as they are now, then that's

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Speaker 1: time and money down the drain. And we've been talking

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Speaker 1: about the fact we need to do something about this. Well,

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Speaker 1: something has been done, so aren't we best to just

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Speaker 1: make use of it? If the thing does what it

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Speaker 1: says on the label. And we haven't actually seen that yet,

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Speaker 1: of course, because the bloody thing hasn't open, But if

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Speaker 1: that happens, it'll be worth the extra three hundred bucks

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Speaker 1: a year to me via other gains. This might be naive,

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Speaker 1: it might be a touch too hopeful for you this morning,

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Speaker 1: but if this thing works then I don't mind paying

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Speaker 1: the train tax. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,

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Speaker 1: listen live to News Talk Set B from five am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio