Dear Friend,

Today is Budget Day, and frankly I'm expecting bad news for taxpayers.

Special interest groups are successfully exploiting the COVID-19 crisis to spend your money on their pet projects.

First it was cycleways and "Māori businesses". Now it's horse racing. Will you help us fight back?

In a pre-Budget teaser, Winston Peters announced he's granting $72.5 million of your money to the racing industry – including funding for two new race tracks.

Compare that with the money for life-saving drugs: just $10 million extra was allocated to PHARMAC for next year.

Who looks at a literal pandemic and decides we need to respond by building race tracks for horses?!

Friend, we've got two Taxpayers' Union analysts in today's pre-Budget lockup to sort through the documents and expose rorts like Winston Peters's handout for the racing industry.

We are only able to do this because of contributions from taxpayers like you.

Will you support our work?

Every dollar allows us to keep the lights on, keep paying key staff, and provide a voice for taxpayers during this perilous time.

Thank you for your support.

David Farrar Co-founder New Zealand Taxpayers' Union