Why PSD's boat tax was wrecked
NEWS that Public Services has climbed down over implementing its poorly considered and lamentably consulted package of punitive mooring fees was hardly a surprise. As skin-saving exercises go, it was inevitable.
NEWS that Public Services has climbed down over implementing its poorly considered and lamentably consulted package of punitive mooring fees was hardly a surprise. As skin-saving exercises go, it was inevitable.
From having dumped - hidden? - the bad news on its website to pretending that the attack on larger boatowners had been discussed with the various interest groups, the department was on the defensive.
At least by going public on its U-turn in the same week its plans were exposed, PSD is spared the further embarrassment of being forced to back track by a group of deputies and therefore has retained at least a fig-leaf of control.
The more significant issue, however, is how the board managed so comprehensively to bungle a sensitive political situation.
All the signs, including leaving the harbour master, a civil servant when all said and done, to field the flack and the extreme reluctance of the minister to make himself available for interview, indicated that Public Services knew it was on shaky ground. There is even a whiff that since the proposals were a Robin Hood attack on rich yachties with gin palaces, the politicians should not sully themselves on anything so demeaning.
It should be remembered, however, that this is the department that managed to mismanage essential maintenance to its runway or even to provide sufficient firefighters so the airstrip could be used. Thinking things through may not be its strongest point.
That lack of forethought is also reflected in the proposals. Increases boatowners found so objectionable were in part justified by the need to upgrade facilities - but since the newest pontoon is now 21 years old, funding an upgrade policy should hardly have come as a surprise.
The reality, of course, is that the board for political ends decided to target the owners of large craft on the less than evidential basis that they must be rich. Moving to an 'ability to pay' method of determining marina fees rather than the traditional 'cost, plus a bit for repairs and future expenditure' is a huge and questionable leap.
Yet PSD didn't even have the sense to run its social engineering equivalent of a big boat tax past the Policy Council first.
Which is why it has now foundered.
