Editing Transport in New Zealand (section)

===Funding===
Historically, most roads in New Zealand were funded by local road authorities (often road boards) who derived their income from local rates. As the need for new roads was often most urgent in those parts of the country where little rate income could yet be collected, the funding was at least partly dependent on national-level subsidies, for which much lobbying was undertaken.<ref name="TEARAROADS"/> Many acts and ordinances were passed in the first decades of the colony, but lack of funds and parochialism (the desire to spend locally raised money locally, rather than use it to link different provinces) hindered the growth of the road network. This lack of larger-scale planning eventually led to increased public works powers given to the Central Government.<ref name="TEARAADMIN">''[http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/R/Roads/Administration/en Roads – Administration]'' (from [[Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand]], 1966 Edition. Retrieved 19 July 2008.)</ref>

Today, all funding for state highways and around 50% of funding for local roads comes directly from road users through the National Land Transport Fund. Road user revenue directed to the fund includes all fuel excise duty on LPG and CNG, around 55% of revenue from fuel excise duty on petrol, all revenue from road user charges (a prepaid distance/weight licence that all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, and all non-petrol/LPG/CNG vehicles are liable to pay) and most non-[[Accident Compensation Corporation|ACC]] revenue from motor vehicle registration and licensing fees. In addition, in the last three years the government has increasingly allocated additional funds to land transport, to the extent that today the total expenditure by the [[NZ Transport Agency]] on land transport projects exceeds road tax revenue collected.{{When|date=March 2010}} The remainder of funding for local city and district roads primarily comes from local authority property rates.

As of 2010, transport funding in New Zealand is still heavily biased towards road projects – the National government proposes to spend $21 billion on roading infrastructure after 2012, yet only $0.7 billion on other transport projects (public transport, walking and cycling). This has been criticised by opponents of the current government strategy as irresponsible, in light of increasing fuel prices and congestion.<ref name="SPIKE"/> Government has claimed that their priority on roads is in line with New Zealanders' favoured travel modes,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.transport.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Research/Documents/2016-Transport-Knowledge-Presentations/4.3a-Ryan-MoT-Overview-of-the-transport-outlook.pdf|title=New Zealand Transport Outlook|last=Ryan|first=David|date=10 November 2016|website=Ministry of Transport|page=11}}</ref> and as being the most promising in terms of economic benefits.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.transport.govt.nz/multi-modal/keystrategiesandplans/gpsonlandtransportfunding/previous-government-policy-statements/gps2015/gps-2015-online/introduction/|title=Introduction to GPS 2015 {{!}} Ministry of Transport|website=www.transport.govt.nz|language=en-NZ|access-date=2018-10-16}}</ref>