Our rates feed a steadily growing empire

The only thing extraordinary about the New Plymouth District Council extraordinary meeting to act on impacts of Covid-19 is in the council’s ability to protect its own spending.

While the preceding VT report in the agenda paints an awful picture of economic contraction and job losses and the council acknowledges a revenue deficit of $7 million (including the further bailout to the airport terminal), the chief executive and councillors are determined that not much will change for them.

We should all be grateful that they aren’t proposing a 12 per cent rate increase to cover the fiscal gap.

But it’s hard to see why borrowing more with a 4 per cent rate increase should be any more palatable.

While the council wants to talk about preserving ‘‘services’’, the reality is that a big part of expenditure covers wages and salaries of the steadily growing empire that is the NPDC.

If they cut 20 per cent of their workforce to cover the gap we’d never notice. Middle managers shuffling papers, endless IT projects, public relations spin doctors, administrators, policy advisers – all creating their own work but contributing nothing of value. While everyone else is urged to adapt to the new normal and to embrace the opportunities of disruption it seems that nothing will disrupt the entitled and statist view of local government officials.

Local government had an opportunity to rise to the occasion but has been distinctive by a total lack of community leadership, both symbolic and tangible. If they can’t demonstrate their relevance in a crisis why do we need them at all?

Len Houwers of Arete Consulting Ltd, New Plymouth