Imagine a world

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    Posted: 04 Nov 2014 at 9:05am
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Titanium
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Pondering my rates bill at breakfast this morning has got me thinking on the true black magic of compounding interest...and pigeons.  

I don't know where you live but over here in middle earth Mount Albert we have experienced rate raises over the last 3 years of 10% per year, compounding.    In 3 years my rates have gone from $3000 to $4400.   

Slithery Len adroitly extols how much 'fairer' the system is and how he and his band of merry men have sweated blood and moved mountains to ensure that the average rate raise is only 2.5%.    

Oh I know,  our Civic masters hasten to explain that much of the actual rate hike is being driven by absurd and exploding residential asset values.   But it only serves to obscure a greater truth.      

The truth they are less willing to convey is the burden that the blossoming expense of past borrowings for 'great ideas' is now imposing on the Council's budget.   Did you know that nearly 25% of your rates bill and mine is now going to service existing debt.   That's 'servicing' the debt, not actually paying any of it off you understand?   

And with this wonderful community-spirited commitment by our wise leaders to keep rate increase under 2.5% they only want to borrow, oh another 2 or 3 billion or so over the next wee while for some more much needed infrastructure.   They want to take net debt from about about 6.5 billion to about 9 - lets make it 10 billion.  Whats a billion between friends.    But don't worry though.  You and I will only have to pay 2.5% more each year, Ok, even though we are talking about increasing the overall debt by 40 or 50%. 

[You can insert your own TUIS here if you have one.] 

So while you sip your coffee this morning come with me, just for a moment.  I want to take you off to a parallel universe.     

Imagine a world where a Government, Local or Central, was only allowed, by LAW, to spend what it is prepared to tax its citizens to give it in any one year.  i.e if they don't tax it they can't spend it.   

Can you see it? Can you grasp the implications of this simple change?   Can you get your head around that notion, Petal?  How long would an unpopular government last come election date unless it had popular support for its ideas?

Consider how much more power such a system would offer its citizens if they were not able to be bribed with their own or others money.    Sure, for such citizenry to prosper it would require people to take a good deal of individual responsibility for their lives.   No where to hide in such a world.  No Politicians to blame afterall.  But how much better would we be served if our leaders were forced to live within OUR means or convince us why we need to spend more before they spent more.  Imagine the battle of ideas that might ensue.  Scary thought for many taking such responsibility I'm sure.   Most prefer the cradle to grave comfort of Government.

But back to reality and my luke warm coffee.
 
Who can I blame for the fact that most of the 33% Rates increase over 2010 - some $1,400-  I am paying this morning is going to service the interest on past spending largess?   Is Lenny also screwing me?   No.  The financial mess Auckland finds itself in is entirely because We and those before us allowed them or accepted 'bribes' with our own or our children's money.    Rather than face the real world and take responsibility for our own society we have let them spend up big time and agreed to let them foist it on future generations of tax payers. 

Now, inevitably, WE have become our CHILDREN and the debt pigeons we let fly are now coming home to roost.  The debt bailiff out in the street can be heard scraping at the door with an IOU in his mitts with our names on it.

Perhaps I should just up and leave.   Sell up my huge nominal capital gain and move to somewhere else, like Up North, where the local government is not so fiscally inept?..........oh that won't work.  Just the same up there too.  Besides its full of the whinging Rats that have already left the ship and who now gleefully call me a Jaffa. 

There's only one solution of course  Go on. You know it.  

King Billy, your neighborhood benevolent dictator.
(Ready and willing to serve it up)



 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Tagit Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 2014 at 9:37am
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Titanium
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Most reasonably sane and thinking people I talk to in Auckland are aghast at how our council is unable to come up with a plan to control Auckland's debt so that the city can live within it's means. They are even more concerned that Len and his cronies can not see the massive issue they are creating. 
Personally I get sick of hearing how "the people of Auckland have told me that we need to ...." as if they have some real mandate to bankrupt the city. Sure people will say that we want better this and better that, but when did they get asked if they were willing to make Auckland unaffordably expensive to get those things done? Reality is that this council is going to turn Auckland into an economic basket case pursuing their own pet projects. What we really (and urgently) need now is a development plan that is based on what we can afford, not pipe dreams.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote billfish Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 2014 at 9:55am
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Seems to me if some of these great ideas offered such compelling utility to the general public that private enterprise would be falling over themselves to offer it if only the government would just get out of the frigging regulatory way.  Tax incentives even.   
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote A C Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Nov 2014 at 1:13pm
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Eggs not poached quite the way you like them Bill or is the barista not aerating the milk to the correct degree of fluff
Aye-Aye cloth eyes.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Kezza Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Nov 2014 at 3:18pm
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snorting your 'coffee' again Billy?…Thumbs Up

How is that book coming along?
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote cirrus Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Nov 2014 at 10:12am
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Originally posted by Tagit Tagit wrote:

Most reasonably sane and thinking people I talk to in Auckland are aghast at how our council is unable to come up with a plan to control Auckland's debt so that the city can live within it's means. They are even more concerned that Len and his cronies can not see the massive issue they are creating. 
Personally I get sick of hearing how "the people of Auckland have told me that we need to ...." as if they have some real mandate to bankrupt the city. Sure people will say that we want better this and better that, but when did they get asked if they were willing to make Auckland unaffordably expensive to get those things done? Reality is that this council is going to turn Auckland into an economic basket case pursuing their own pet projects. What we really (and urgently) need now is a development plan that is based on what we can afford, not pipe dreams.


Why would people be aghast at council not having a plan to control
Aucklands debt. Just have to take one look at them (council )to find your answer.
I am in central A.K Massive rate rises and with every rise less service and value. Incompetence & flawed vision at it very worst. More corrosive than battery acid.
Remember Detroit and California--Bankrupt
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Finatic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Nov 2014 at 12:57pm
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When has Len Brown ever listened to the wants/needs of Aucklanders? He's a socialist, does what he wants and expects us to do as we are told. Get rid of the **** next elections PLEASE! Sick of hearing about his bloody train fetish. 

Billfish for mayor!
What's the cheapest type of meat? Dear balls. They're under a buck.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Kevin.S Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Nov 2014 at 1:47pm
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Originally posted by cirrus cirrus wrote:

Originally posted by Tagit Tagit wrote:

Most reasonably sane and thinking people I talk to in Auckland are aghast at how our council is unable to come up with a plan to control Auckland's debt so that the city can live within it's means. They are even more concerned that Len and his cronies can not see the massive issue they are creating. 
Personally I get sick of hearing how "the people of Auckland have told me that we need to ...." as if they have some real mandate to bankrupt the city. Sure people will say that we want better this and better that, but when did they get asked if they were willing to make Auckland unaffordably expensive to get those things done? Reality is that this council is going to turn Auckland into an economic basket case pursuing their own pet projects. What we really (and urgently) need now is a development plan that is based on what we can afford, not pipe dreams.


Why would people be aghast at council not having a plan to control
Aucklands debt. Just have to take one look at them (council )to find your answer.
I am in central A.K Massive rate rises and with every rise less service and value. Incompetence & flawed vision at it very worst. More corrosive than battery acid.
Remember Detroit and California--Bankrupt



Auckland council can be summed up in the fact they are cutting funding to local boards which will cause a cut in core services, while thinking spending millions on a statue of a state house on the end of a pier is a good idea. Time they cut the crap (and got rid of some of the 1780 employees earning over $100k) and cut back to what they are actually required to fund. Much as I enjoy some of the events they help fund, if an event can't survive without a big council hand-out then it shouldn't be run. When you're short of money you cut out non-essential expenditure, but that seems too complicated a concept for the council to grasp.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Olfart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Nov 2014 at 4:10pm
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Yep you are dead right, Kevin.  Trouble is lots of activities that used to be funded by Government have been devolved to Local Authorities to administer with next to no financial assistance, so costs have had to be met through rates.  And because all of those extra charges against the rates take will not go away any new "development works" the Council wants to undertake also have to be met from the same pot, so if it is not full enough to cover all the expenditure needed the easiest method of funding is to increase rates.
Now we are faced with some core services possibly being discontinued in order to try to balance the books but with the best will in the world (while the current program of "development works" is being touted) the books will never really be balanced and debt will continue its' savage spiral.
There was a time when you knew all of your local Councillors by their first names and the focus was on core business (i.e. roading, parks, water, sewage, waste water and refuse removal). You could ring your local representative if you saw something that needed sorting and it would be dealt with within 48 hours at the most.
Some people would say progress is all important but I really do think the shift away from what really matters to most people has been a bridge too far and we are left counting the ever increasing costs associated with so called "progress."
Semper in excreta sumus, solum profundum variat....



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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote tugboat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Nov 2014 at 5:04pm
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When ya put it like that!!! Shocked Your a smart man billy, a moment of clarity right there, i can almost smell the coffee beans!!!
I agree, billy for major LOL

Whats this book, i'd buy it??Wink
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote billfish Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Nov 2014 at 10:11am
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WTF!?    Mayor????.....Hmmmph.    

Sorry chum its King, Devine Ruler and Despot,  or nothing.

Although I do hear that some of the 'perks' of the job on the mayoral desk are pretty good.     



H.R.H William REX 

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Tagit Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Nov 2014 at 10:59am
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There are 10's (probably 100's) of $millions being spent on 'pet projects' that are totally unnecessary. At a guess there is $10m - $20m that I can see from my window right now that a council with debt issues should never have spent. How the hell do these meaningless projects get approved when at the same time we are endlessly hiking rates and talking about slashing core services? There appears to be a huge management problem in our council in both the political and bureaucratic organisations. It is time that they had a serious management shake up and tossed out those that can't operate in the real world of where we are today.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote full sacks Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Nov 2014 at 2:33am
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I think the super city will keep growing till it covers the whole country.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Lethal Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Nov 2014 at 2:49pm
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dead right Tagit,
personal memorials for my time spent working for the council seams to be the agenda....
 
Thanks for everything you did for us Eric. may you rest in peace, You were one of the real legends of NZ recreational fishing
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Clifftastic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Nov 2014 at 3:07pm
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If you shake from the top down, the ones who drop are the ones that oppose you. Therefore you are left with an entire tree stacked with people who believe they are doing great things. 

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