There was a storm in Auckland this afternoon. In a normal city, this means people stay indoors with the cat, and hope they don't have to go out. In Auckland, it means flash-flooding and sewage in the streets. The reason? Decades of local government promising to "keep rates down", and penny-pinching on infrastructure and maintenance to do it. Aucklanders reliably voted for this, and today they got their payoff: shit flowing down Queen Street, causing a public health hazard and untold damage to the city's reputation.
The lesson: one way or another, you are going to end up paying for sewers and storm-water drains. Better to vote for politicians who are honest about that fact, rather than those who pretend that cuts don't have consequences.
