...and He taketh away

We've always suspected the Diva of having a messianic complex. So it's little wonder that not only does the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, but that Mickey is having a go too.

Not only are staff cuts on the agenda (and commenters are right, these should come as a surprise to no one, least of all the staff themselves) but cuts to services as well.

Oh, and a potential seven percent rates rise "just to stand still".

And whose fault is all this?

Surely not the Visionites, who rode to power on the back of promises of "nil" rates rises and improvements to services like gleaming new swimming pool extensions? Capping expenditure while increasing services has never been managed by any administration at any level anywhere, but that didn't stop the Diva. And to his credit, he managed to fool enough of the people enough of the time to get elected.

While lopping a few public servants off at the knees was always clearly on the agenda, Watchers can't remember the words "rates rises" let alone "borrowing" being used by the Diva's dwarves -- not even during the recent buy-election.

But they hadn't been in office a year when their hands went into the cookie jar and emerged with a $2.4 million loan. And now Wanganui-ites are being softened up for a rates rise which was always inevitable in a town which had essentially been left to stagnate in many respects.

No one likes a rates rise, but an honest politician would have put their cards on the table, presenting a list of unavoidable expenses (like, say, stormwater) and optional expenses (like, say, pool extensions) complete with budgets and allowed people to make intelligent decisions about what they wanted and how much they were prepared to pay to get it.

Instead, voters were led to believe that they could have a brand spanking new swimming pool and a redeveloped town centre (but not an art gallery that even met health and safety requirements) without having to fork across an extra cent in rates.

"Eey oop," they said, in that charmingly bucolic way they have, "if anyone's that clever with money, they'll get my vote! Why, I'll send the missus up Guyton Street to ask that clever bloke how she can serve t-bone steak every night without me having to give her any more housekeeping!".

According to the Diva this is everyone's fault but his, of course, telling the Chronic it was all down to "new audit requirements" and "some [items] missed out in the last [LTCCP] plan" and confirming "cuts to some council services and to staff numbers".

When even a casual observer of Wanganui's finances pre-Vision could see that the town was facing ongoing infrastructure costs such as stormwater separation and the wastewater treatment plant, let alone the costs of any wishlist projects such as the Heart or the Splash Centre, to now claim that the imminent belt-tightening has somehow snuck up on Council means one of two things. Either Vision was stupid, or they were dishonest.

It's not their fault they're now faced with having to make staff redundant, cut services, raise rates, or some combination of all three. It's not their fault they couldn't deliver increased services and infrastructure without increasing the rates burden and / or cutting back in other areas. No one could have been expected to achieve those things.

The point is, though, that no one else promised to, and got themselves elected on the basis of that promise.

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