The Grey River Argus SATURDAY, August 3, 1940, BOROUGH FINANCE.

Grey River Argus, 3 August 1940, Page 6

The Grey River Argus SATURDAY, August 3, 1940, BOROUGH FINANCE.

Another little loan wouldn’t do us any harm, proves to be cnee again the Greyinouth municipal budgetary refrain. As for the object of the suggested borrowing, it is one at which few could reasonably cavil. It is designed to provide material that is essential if forty or fifty men who otherwise would need to look .for work elsewhere, are to be found employment within the borough, where, the State would find almost the whole oc their wages. So long as really constructive work is found for these workers the town would make a good bargain in having this work carried out at no greater cost than that of the materia I incidental to its completion. This principle used not to be so acceptable to the majority of the Council when they undertook a policy of economy and relief for the ratepayers. In the interim the said relief has failed to put in an appearance, though it can not be said that it has been due to a lack of economy. The town meantime has been growing, and expenditure, has had to keep pace with the extension, as instanced by the sewerage, scheme. Just now, moreover, there is rather an insistent demand for attention to the streets and similar amen-1 ities in Holland Settlement, a! Cobden. However, Councillor? have for years been telling the ratepayers that the only obstacle to a rate reduction has been the. hospital levy, whereas, when that levy has now been reduced a couple of thousand pounds, the Council’s proposal is for a loan of a similar sum. It suggests that councillors mighjt at least indi cate the grounds on which they used to think rates would vary, not inversely, but conversely with the hospital levy. In the past term an overdraft of nearly 'fsooo was estimated, but the os timate was exceeded, and in the present term a similar overdraft is budgeted for, with a net rat ing increase of over £6OO, allow ing for the reduction in the hospital] levy, but not for the loan foi which it is proposed to ask the authority of the ratepayers. It appears that during the past three years the. borough finances have gone back to the extent of over £BOOO, but councillors expect that by borrowing another £2OOO a year for three years would assist to a balancing of the budget. Out of the £6OOO so raised there would be £4200 available, for spending, affording during the ensuing three years the average amount of material that has yearly been required to keep 40 or more men employed who would otherwise have been unable to obtain work in town. It would take ten years to repay the £6OOO, but if constructive work, were done the municipality would obtain value to an appro

eiably greater extent. So long, therefore, as the rating Burden were not felt to be irksome in Ihe meantime, the proposition would certainly be advantageous. It is . pointed out that of f 13,000 expected to be realised in the current year by special rate, £7,000 goes towards loan reduction, but with a fresh loan this could be reckoned at but £5 000 in the aggregate, and in looking to the future it raises the question again as to when rating might be expected to un dergo some stabilisation oi le(luetion. Experience of regular increases might even dispose some to be uncertain about assurances that a fresh loan is a guarantee that the Council ihereby will be enabled to live within' its means—whatever that, may actually mean—in the sub sequent year. If there are miles of kerbing and channelling to be done, and the State wages subsidy is going largely to help in financing that work, it would doubtless be sound, economy to obtain such material as may be necessary by borrowing, but it fi just as well not to make promises about economy in the sense ol avoiding rate increases until such time as there remains no such un certainty of their fulfilment as J here has hitherto been. Coun ~fillers themselves have had the experience of standing originally on a platform of economy which has shifted from under them, and cannot .now expect to be taken so seriously when they affirm that economy has nothing whatever to do with rating or revenue or expenditure, but is entirely a matter of getting the maximum amount of work done. That was not the connotation of the term as it was applied merely to the municipal indebtedness, and it is just as well to have a clear definition of the. term when it is used again. Although this is a time of war stringency, however, any critic of the Council who might demur at the proposed loan has an obligation not only to poin.< to items of estimateci expenditure which could be cur tailed, but to disprove the claim that it is not good business to carry out essential work, the la hour for which is obtainable nearly entirely “free, gratis and for nothing.”