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Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz |
For readers who missed last week, Western Bay District Council was placed 58th out of 67 councils on a Local Government League Table after they were judged on their performance in handling debt, with respect to the ability of their ratepayers to pay. They were listed with ten other councils at the bottom of the table who were considered guilty of wasteful overspending and maladministration.
Last year, the poorly performing councils complained that such a table was simplistic and that there were other factors that had to be taken into account. Western Bay has already insisted that there is good debt and bad debt. Last year, it was revealed council debt equated to about $2300 per person in the district and about $7200 per ratepayer.
Our good infrastructure debt this year is $105million out of a total debt of more than $150million. Good debt, in this case, refers to intergenerational infrastructure debt which means that the water system that supplies the water you are drinking today is to be paid by you for the rest of your life, by your children and even by your grandchildren.
This version of ‘paying on the never-never' was implemented to cope with the ‘high levels of growth experienced in the Bay and the absence of any reserves for infrastructure. The debt is to be cleared over the years by a combination of rates, user charges and financial contributions'.
These are all charges on ratepayers. This form of debt repayment is wishful thinking because many of the debts that have been identified, like those of Omokoroa and Waihi Beach, are actually rising. Despite the rates and targeted rates inflicted each year, council has not even been paying off interest on the loans and is capitalising on the debts. The table takes this ‘other factor', the concept of good debt, into consideration this year and the Western Bay was judged to be even further down the table. Clearly debt is debt in anybody's language.
There is of course another option open to council. They can blame SmartGrowth. This evil organisation took over planning in the Bay of Plenty and our council could portray itself as a victim. If SmartGrowth is treated as a sacrificial goat, Western Bay will be left with a council that not only has no money, it will be a council with absolutely no forward-planning capability. SmartGrowth was set up to help councils spend future income wisely. They haven't. All council needs to do is rename SmartGrowth the ‘Smart Recovery' and go to work. Of course, that would first mean that council has to admit that its low position on the league table is its own fault, and be willing to do something about it. Expect more of the blame game before that happens.
The election offers a great chance for the current councillors to hide. Anyone who tries to criticise council will be accused of electioneering. They have been given instructions not to criticise council in their electioneering. I don't care in the least which candidates get into council at the end of the year but everyone will need to publicly address the council's poor administration record and declare their determination to work with the other councillors to tackle the problems revealed in the league table. The new council will not be popular as it implements the changes needed that should have started three years ago.