John MacDonald: Council in 'deep shtuck' needs to cut its cloth

How confident are you in the Christchurch City Council’s ability to run its finances? 

Because, just like Auckland and Wellington, we’ve now got the Christchurch council saying it’s in a financial mess. 

Mayor Phil Mauger is saying that the council’s finances are "deep shtuck". That’s how he’s politely putting it. He’s also saying that the council is up a certain creek. And you know which creek that is. 

So things are tight at the council. In fact, so tight, that they are looking at rates increases of 18 percent. But Phil says, before that happens, they’ll be doing the old “line-by-line” thing with the budget. 

If that sounds familiar, you might remember that that’s what Phil banged-on about before he was elected mayor last year. Line-by-line. Cutting spending. All that stuff. 

And yet, here we are - a year on - the budgets are blowing out and we’re potentially facing an 18 percent increase in rates.  

And part of the line-by-line thing, could be cuts to things like libraries and pools to try and save money. That’s what Phil Mauger is saying. He’s also saying that some new water mains might not be put in, roading work might be delayed and cycleways could be on the chopping block. 

But here’s the nub of the problem. And here’s why I have such little faith in the council getting on top of this. Because if you’ve got elected councillors making the decisions and running the finances, they’re only going to protect their patch.  

They’re only going to fight for the things they want. Forget about the collective good. 

Case in point. Phil Mauger’s new pothole repair crew. Remember that was one of his things he promised during his election campaign? 

Well, he’s saying in one breath today that the council is in deep shtuk and needs to make cuts, which are going to make some people “seriously unhappy”. But then, in the next breath, he’s saying that his pothole repair crew won’t be one of the things that gets the chop. 

That costs $10 million a year to run. Half the money comes from the government. The other $5 million is council money. But. even before all councillors have been briefed on the state of the finances - which is happening today - you’ve got the mayor saying ‘don’t touch my pet project’. 

And that is what’s going to happen right around the council table. 

We’ll have Phil protecting his road repair crew. We’ll have councillors like Tim Scandrett protecting the $10 million that needs to be spent on the South Library. Sara Templeton won’t be wanting to budge on cycleway spending. 

Which is another one of the things Phil Mauger is talking about stopping to save money.  

So it’s going to be an absolute bunfight. And that’s why I have very little confidence in the council’s ability to get on top of this and get its finances in order. 

The only way it could do it properly would be to take the elected councillors completely out of the picture. Because I’ve seen it time-and-time again, when you get the council bean-counters coming to the table and saying we need to save this amount, and to do that we need to cut this. 

And what happens is the politicians around the table can’t bring themselves to agree on anything. Because they all have their own special interests and causes. Special interests and causes that, most likely, got them elected and around the council table in the first place. 

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