Calvin Explains Stadium Funding

Calvin Oaten has done an excellent analysis of the Stadium funding.
Proponents claim that the Stadium will not cost more than $66 a year for the average household.
But Calvin shows that the Stadium will also reduce the income the City receives from Dunedin City Holdings by $11 million a year, which will have to be made up for from rates.
The effective cost to the average household is actually over $300 a year.

ODT calls for Every Dollar to Count

A good editorial in the ODT today:

But nevertheless, now is the time for councillors, the mayor and the chief executive to show effective leadership, and to overhaul council operations so they are lean, efficient and focused - so that every dollar spent and borrowed does indeed count.
Every single private business in the city and most householders are doing just that, so why should local government be the exception? Now is the time to halt the ongoing march of rates increases.

I am not holding my breath for the Dunedin City Council to take any notice.

DCC Rates Increase Gets Bigger

The recent Dunedin City Council budget hearings have resulted in the proposed rates increase for next year rising from 6.7% to 7.8%. Suggestions for reducing spending have come to nothing and instead new spending has been added.

But Councilor Guest did speak some sense (from the ODT):

He began voicing a long list of council departments and estimates receiving "phenomenal increases" - something that took several minutes and prompted Mayor Chin to interject. Cr Guest urged councillors to focus on those areas, saying the final rates increase could be reduced by as much as 3% if they did.

It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this when the hearing resume on February 2.

Projected rates rises for the following years are 10.4%, 9.3% and 9.4%. These are driven by major spending on the Town Hall project, Sewerage Treatment and the Stadium. Unless some serious economies are made, Ratepayers are in for an unhappy time.

Government $25 million for Stadium ?

A source in the building industry tells me that the Government is expected to agree to give $25 million towards the new Stadium.
This makes sense : the Government is looking for infra-structure projects which are ready-to-go, to spend money on so it looks as though it is "doing something" about the economic situation.
This Government money will not reduce the burden on Dunedin ratepayers : it will merely fill in the hole left by the failure of private fund-raising.

Holiday Road Trip

I'm just back in Dunedin after visiting family and holidaying in Nelson and the Kapiti Coast. Things which stood out on my travels:

• The thriving crops and green grass throughout the South Island. It is a most productive Season.
• The traffic-jams on the Kapiti Coast: "Stuck in the traffic in Paraparaumu". The loss in productivity from inadequate highways is enormous. Let's hope that the new Government's infrastructure spending will help.
• The beauty of the Lewis Pass, Nelson, Golden Bay and the Marlborough Sounds.
• A renewed appreciation of Dunedin: the hills, the Harbour and the fine sands and fine dining at St Clair beach. If only it was just a little warmer.
  

Only Government Cash Can Save Stadium

The plan for a new Stadium is dead unless the the Government comes up with money to replace the shortfall from other funding sources. The fund-raising from the private sector is well-short of target and the Community Trust of Otago has suffered from the current financial decline and no longer has a spare $10 million. I have no doubt that intense lobbying is going on to try to get cash from the new National Government's "infrastructure" spendup.
But the Government should be aware that giving money which enables the Stadium to go ahead will be controversial and unpopular with a large proportion of Otago people. Locals would be still left with high rates and an enormous debt to repay.
Surveys and submissions to local bodies have consistently shown a significant majority opposed to a new Stadium if it is largely publicly funded.

Slack Management Allows Otago DHB Fraud

Otago District Health Board Chairman, Richard Thomson, is talking a lot about the $17.8 million fraud by Michael Swann. We are getting lots of excuses, but no-one is being held to account for the slack management.

Richard Thomson says:

One of Brian Rousseau's early actions after his arrival here was to get an independent review done of our IT strategy.

The reviewers' list does not include the "contracts" because, if they existed at the time, Swann made sure they were not available to review.

But why was the total value of the reviewed contracts not compared with the actual amount being spent on IT: the fraud would have then been apparent. A diligent manager would have done this, but Brian Rousseau did not.
The responsibility for the culture of an organisation ultimately lies the the man at the top. Richard Thomson was Chairman during almost all the time the fraud was taking place. He would gain respect if he did the decent thing and resigned.