There’s clearly an issue with Whanau’s ability to unite the council, as she promised to do before the election. There’s the events centre. The Reading Cinema sale. The spats. The leaking. There also, more worryingly, appears to be a problem with understanding basic financial information. How much is your average ratepayer stumping up for debt servicing? Whanau wasn’t sure when asked by Mills so she texted her staff during the interview to find an answer. We didn’t get one.
The Taxpayers’ Union issued a press release last week claiming the number is $800. If you’re paying rates in Wellington, every household is forking out $800 per year in interest on the council’s debt.
Because the council decided not to sell the airport shares, its own officials reckon they may need to double or even triple their debt ceiling from $272 million to $500m or even $750m.
If that makes you want to sh*t yourself, remember, in Wellington, it’s always safer to do it in your pants. The underground pipes are so buggered you just don’t know where it might end up. Following you to work in the morning in one of those tidal waves we read about in the news?
Other options include cutting, by up to $600m, the city’s spending on capital projects. For their own sake, I sincerely hope they elect to cut the Golden Mile before scrimping on the pipes. A clean street’s surely better than a dirty but cyclable one.
Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau speaking on Newstalk ZB’s Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills last month. Photo / Mark Mitchell
However hard this may be for Wellington’s ratepayers, it’s a lesson I’m afraid they are going to have to learn.
One best learnt without the Government getting involved.
The bar is, rightly, high for Government intervention and this is by no means in Tauranga territory in terms of financial blowouts, resignations and in-fighting.
From a purely political standpoint, the image of a right-wing Government swooping in to corral a bunch of borrow-and-spend lefties and greenies may not have the long-term desired effect.
The blame for Wellington’s inability to manage its financial resources, stick to a capital build programme and deliver a long-term plan will be laid at the feet of those elected.
Reading between the lines, it sounds like the Government, at worst, would appoint a sort of local body nanny to observe the councillors making decisions as they happen. This might motivate them to behave and get things done.
If Wellingtonians know what’s good for them, they may decide to scrutinise the CVs of those they elect to council a little more closely next time.
And that’s the other point here: timing. As of last week, we’re now less than a year away from the next local body elections.
What Wellington needs to learn is a lesson the hard way.
As it happens, I’ll be MCing an event in the capital tonight. Both Whanau and Luxon are due to attend. Should be an interesting night.
