Crs must cut corporate welfare, not libraries

The Post reports:

A move to stop a $32m Wellington City Council deal, seen by some as corporate welfare for Los Angeles millionaires, is gaining momentum with a majority now possible to derail the plan.

At a Wellington City Council meeting on Thursday, Pukehinau/Lambton Ward councillor Iona Pannett plans to issue a “notice of motion of revocation” — a council mechanism to reverse an earlier vote and, if it gets the numbers, for the council to withdraw from a $32m purchase of the land under the Reading Courtenay Place cinema complex.

Councillor Nicola Young confirmed she was seconding the motion, with backers Ray Chung labelling the $32m deal a “vanity project” and Diane Calvert calling it “absolutely bonkers”.

Councillors Tony Randle and Sarah Free have confirmed their support for Pannett, taking backers to six. A vote would need at least eight on the 15-member council. But two — Nureddin Abduraham and Ben McNulty — are on the fence with others failing to return calls and emails.

Wellington ratepayers are facing huge double digit rate rises for years and years. To reduce this, the WCC has done the usual trick of proposing options they know will be deeply unpopular such as closing pools and libraries, while protecting their massive wasteful spending such as the Town Hall renovation and corporate welfare for a multinational cinema company. They do this, so when there is a backlash to closing pools and libraries, they can claim the rates increases are necessary as ratepayers didn’t want the spending cuts.

Six of the Councillors are refusing to play ball. They are rightfully saying that if you are prosing closing libraries and swimming pools, then you can’t justify $30 million of corporate welfare to a cinema company.

Any Councillor who votes to prioritise corporate welfare over libraries and swimming polls should be voted out at the next election.