Future fear is of the States itself
THE start of a new year is always an opportunity for islanders to look ahead - hopefully with optimism - to the challenges and opportunities on the horizon. In the past, that has generally been an easy task for times have been good and showed no sign of letting up.
THE start of a new year is always an opportunity for islanders to look ahead - hopefully with optimism - to the challenges and opportunities on the horizon. In the past, that has generally been an easy task for times have been good and showed no sign of letting up.
Now that the credit crunch has bitten with a vengeance, it is clear to all that 2009 and beyond will be difficult on an individual and community level, if only because no one really knows at this stage how bad things will - or will not - become.
On the positive side, Guernsey has weathered difficult times in the past and islanders are resourceful with an entrepreneurial spirit and an ability to see opportunities at the bleakest of moments.
What is an additional concern, however, is that economically turbulent times will coincide with the island contemplating unprecedented amounts of expenditure on its ports and health and education services with, as things stand today, no idea how it is all to be afforded.
It is also clear as we reported on Wednesday that the previously grey hole caused by zero-10 is rapidly blackening and is estimated by the Treasury minister to stand at up to £40m. by the end of the year.
That one figure alone represents an additional burden of £800 to £900 per taxpayer at a time when most islanders have never before given so much of their income to the States of Guernsey.
The days when people living in Guernsey could claim with some satisfaction that they paid just 20% tax are long gone now that social security contributions have become another form of taxation, along with many other calls on islanders' wallets and purses.
With government's appetite for individuals' earnings set to increase still further, it is right in looking ahead to ask what the States is doing to ease that burden on its people.
The answer - despite the pledge of public sector restraint when zero-10 was introduced - is precious little. The new Treasury and Resources team no longer even pays lip service to the call and departments and civil servants will take their lead from that.
Islanders will face the external future with equanimity but it is the government equivalent of 'friendly fire' from within that concerns them most.
