No accounting for stupidity

So asset sales could net up to $7 million for Council, according to the Chron. Who's their source? None other than that well known qualified valuer, Michael Laws esq. Backed up, as he always seems to be, by experienced real estate commentator Dr Warburton.

Of course the Diva has every right to proclaim to the populace his estimate of value. But oughtn't any reporter worth his ballpoint check with an independent source? A local valuer? Valuation NZ? REINZ? All of the above?

But - in a startling change from our usual policy - let's take the Diva at face value and assume an inflow of $7 million into Council's coffers. That'll mean we can pay the $5.4 million for a new Splash centre - avoiding Wanganui going into even more debt than it presently faces - and at least retire $1 million or so of debt, right?

Not according to Dr Warburton, who says it's "hard to say" because "money comes in and goes out". Excuse us? That's the kind of answer we'd expect if we asked Homer Simpson to balance his chequebook, not the CEO of a multimillion dollar enterprise to assess likely future ratepayer liabilities.

In a startling change from his usual policy, the Diva was more honest. It's not going to clear debt, or even make a dent in it. It'll be swallowed up by schemes both necessary and grandiose. "It’s reducing the need for council borrowing," he said (our emphasis). "Put it this way: we have to borrow an extra $20 million over the next two years".

Yet still he adheres to the touching refrain that a fifth of this newly minted debt mountain ought to be spent on a swimming pool because that's "honouring the democratic wishes of Wanganui people". As long as he keeps singing that tune, we'll keep chiming in with the discordant note: they wished for no such thing, Mickey, because the level of debt, and the implications thereof, were never made clear.

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