Local government elected members may claim an allowance form their council for travelling within New Zealand on local authority business.
The current rate is $40.00 per hour for eligible travel that meets the criteria.
The allowance is available each day for any business:
The allowance is not available for overseas travel.
Mayors and regional council chairs cannot claim the travel time allowance because their roles are deemed to be full time and they are remunerated accordingly.
The Mayor of the Chatham Islands can make a claim.
In future the Authority may reconsider this entitlement for councillors whose roles are assessed to be full time.
A council may adopt a travel time allowance policy for elected members to make a claim.
A claim can be made if the journey is:
The first hour of the journey is not covered by the allowance.
An elected member of a local authority who resides outside the local authority boundary and travels to the local authority area on local authority business is eligible for a travel time allowance in respect of eligible travel time only after the member crosses the boundary of the local authority area after the first hour of eligible travel within the local authority area.
A local authority may include in their elected members’ expenses and reimbursement policy provision for members to apply an exemption from the restriction placed on their reimbursement of costs.