Borrowing limits set
Wednesday 29th April 2009, 3:02PM BST.
RULES that set limits on any States borrowing were agreed this morning.
A successful amendment by Deputy John Gollop (pictured) put this at 15% of Guernsey’s GDP, which currently amounts to £250m.
The Policy Council, which proposed the limit initially at 20%, backed it being lowered.
At the end of next month the States will decide how to fund a £301m. wish list of projects to be built this term.
Treasury and Resources is recommending part funding this by £175m. of external borrowing.
But there is an alternative funding model on the table written by a group of five deputies who do not believe that external borrowing is necessary.
- More details in Thursday’s Guernsey Press.
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And I worry about trying to pay my rent each month. I just wish these politions released that people struggle with every day life. I bet they don’t have any money worries at all, just try and think of ways to tax us more. Just half their salaries and the problem wouldn’t be as bad.
Oh well, rent due tomorrow – do I have enough to pay for it…..
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I think a big part of this problem lies with the personal ambitions of many of our politicians.
Lets face it, no politician ever furthered their career by saying “I have spent less on health and education than my predecessors”. It is all about winning popularity in order to get voted in again – and to do that they need to be seen to be spending money on their respective departments.
Right now there simply isn’t enough cash to go around. A really clever and brave politician would use this to their advantage and promote themselves to the voting public as an elected leader who is not afraid to cut back on spending now in order to boost the economy later.
Unfortunately we seem to have a serious shortage of clever and brave politicians. All they can do is keep squabbling for a bigger share of the budget in order to finance their career enhancing capital projects. If that means borrowing money then so be it – never mind that us taxpayers will end up paying for that debt for years to come, the important thing is to be perceived as a politician who “gets things done” (by spending our money).
In my opinion they are wrong. We in Guernsey are proud of the fact that we have never had to borrow money before and proud that we have even managed to put a bit aside in the rainy day fund (what would Gordon Brown give to be in that position?). I think most of us would like to keep it that way even if it meant tightening our belts now.
Sorry to repeat myself, but there are three things I think we should be doing. We need to cut States expenditure and only finance essential projects, we need to stick to budgets when we do spend, and we need to reverse Zero 10 so that (the Island) can start earning money out of our finance industry again.
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>>We in Guernsey are proud of the fact that we have never had to borrow money < <
And what do the two main shouting boys of borrowing have in common; Noneybill and Parkinson? Both english. The rest are ‘uncle toms’
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