Straight out of Yes Minister
The oldest bureaucratic trick in the world when an agency or council is asked to find savings, is for them to announce they will cut the most popular and liked programs, rather than the much larger wasteful pet projects.
We see this with Wellington City Council:
Funding for Te Papa, opening hours for galleries, the city’s new years’ eve fireworks display, and school swimming subsidies, are on the chopping block as Wellington City Council tries to meet rates caps.
Deputy mayor Ben McNulty said at a Tuesday meeting the council needed to grapple with “nasty decisions” to find $60 million in savings in order to comply with a four percent rates cap ordered by the government.
The staff obviously have the Crs well trained up, if this is where they are focusing on to save money.
Are they going to scrap the Organics Processing Solution, which will see CO2 emissions drop at a cost of $9,375 per tonne, compared to the ETS cost of $57?
We also have the $511 million sludge minimisation plant.
I blogged the following in 2024:
- $593 million on social housing
- $400 million for a sludge minimisation facility at Moa Point
- $330 million on rebuilding the town hall so we have another music venue
- $240 million on Civic Square
- $236 million on food recycling
- $189 million on Te Matapihi library
- $180 million on the Takina convention centre
- $160 million on cycleways
- $139 million on removing cars and redeveloping the Golden Mile
- $55 million to “upgrade” Thorndon Quay
- $42 million on renovating St James Theatre
- $32 million to Reading Cinemas (attempted but failed)
- $13 million on a carpark building
Yet they claim the nasty government is going to force them to stop inflicting 20% rates increases on residents, so hence they need to cut subsidies for school swimming!!