Prioritise spending and avoid vanity projects

BRILLIANT editorial (ODT, 28.5.18) headed ‘‘Rates, debt and Dunedin’s future’’.

One addition I would add questions the absolute silence at city hall over the financial risks associated with interestrate swaps. This is something we understand the Dunedin City Council is involved in, which a learned academic recently addressed in detail, and which a subsequent writer described as the most important letter he had seen in these pages.

To give the DCC a break, it is not alone in the abuse of ratepayers’ pockets. That does not make it right.

Last week I invested four hours driving to Dunedin specifically to challenge the Otago Regional Council to look at its 10year plan and declare itself a fiscally responsible council, holding rate increases to the previous year’s level plus inflation. My challenge was answered by two councillors, one of whom said: ‘‘But people keep wanting us to do things!’’

The other comment was: ‘‘For years we have done as you request. Now we have to play catchup on the environmental issues that we didn’t get on top of.’’ Talk about asleep at the wheel.

Apparently someone has to educate councillors to use the word ‘‘no’’ to vocal minorities, to prioritise spending, abandon vanity projects and to teach that throwing more money at a problem does not of itself cure it. Nigel Latta we need you.

The worst aspect of this financial ambivalence is that it widens the economic divide even further in New Zealand and erodes the Kiwi dream of not just buying, but being able to afford to keep, your own home.

Ken J. Lawson

Oamaru

Set a rubbish example

SUPERMARKETS in Dunedin are phasing out singleuse plastic bags while the Dunedin City Council continues to use nonbiodegradable plastic bags rather than wheelie bins as its primary means of garbage collection.

Surely the DCC should be setting an example for the supermarkets rather than viceversa?