CITY MANAGEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 104, 4 May 1937, Page 12

CITY MANAGEMENT

£500,000 SHOULD SUFFICE

RATEPAYERS' VIEW

The contention of the Wellington Ratepayers' Association that it should be possible for the business of the city to be conducted on £500,000 a year was reiterated by the chairman of the association today when discussing the estimates for the current year. He stated that a deputation from the association is to wait on the Mayor (Mr. T. C. A. Hislop) tomorrow afternoon to discuss the estimates and the position generally.

"We still consider that £500,000 per year should be sufficient to meet the city's requirements," stated the chairman. "Of course, this has to be countered by the statement that if the city is continually borrowing and going in for expensive works that are ahead of time, having in view the burden the people are already called upon to bear, the council will naturally find itself at the end of any one year up against the problem of having to find extra money from the people who can ill afford it. The position is that for three years now extra borrowing has been indulged in. For example, there are the library, water, Kent Terrace drainage, and the new sewerage loans, not all of which-Avorks can be considered absolutely essential. UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES. "The private individual finds that if he wants something which might be termed a luxury and his income does not measure up to it, he has got to go without. The same should apply to cities and Governments, but, unforUinately, the people who are directly interested do not have the say. It is true that councillors are put into office to guide the city's affairs and administer the funds, but, to quote the words of the Mayor,. 'I feel that increases in rate taxation must be tempered with the knowledge of what the ratepaying portion of the citizens can reasonably be called upon to bear.' The association is entirely in agreement with that statement, of course, and affirms that in the consideration of loans and large capital works councillors should study the likely effect of the cost on future years' rates and should not spend up to the maximum of what they might consider desirable, because, of course, unexpected commitments are likely to come along. In budgeting for an ordinary business this is an important factor that is always taken into consideration, but it seems to receive insufficient consideration by councillors. This is borne out by the fact that they come to the end of the year and calmly tell the ratepayers that, owing to unforeseen circumstances, they have to ask for another considerable additional sum. "It will be noticed from a study of the estimates that a considerable sum of what is called 'non-controllable payments' is accounted for by commitments that have been incurred in immediate past years, some of which the Ratepayers' Association questioned at the time.

"There does not seem to be any comparison of the administrative charges nor is the interest on commitments in respect of loans shown. Increases in this field have a bearing on the situation because the more money that is borrowed, the more difficult it becomes every year to carry on on a reasonable sum."

A SUMMARY. "The following summary of recent rate levies will indicate what ratepayers are up against:— Due March, 1935 £492,277 Due March, 1936 £499,316 Due March, 1937 £532,037 Due March, 1938 £586,842 "There has therefore been a rise in the rates of £87,000 in two years.