Time to can 'unrealistic' growth
A RECENT letter in these pages from Deputy Mark Helyar sparked considerable reaction, both supportive and critical.
The deputy and this newspaper appear to be united over one of the statements in his letter – ‘the real reason the public doesn’t want to accept the need for more revenue (GST or otherwise) is because they don’t trust the States not to waste that money on more things they neither want nor asked for’.
This is the real concern for many islanders – that the extra tax taken won’t go to frontline services, but will simply fund what they see as the rampant growth of the public sector for no discernible benefit.
Jersey’s government has now scrapped more than 1,000 unfilled, ‘unfunded and aspirational’ vacancies in the public sector, alongside launching a recruitment freeze for civil service jobs paying more than £66,000 a year.
The island’s chief minister said that such positions were ‘unrealistic’.
Yet last year the Guernsey States organised its own recruitment event trying to plug employment gaps, some vacant for more than two years. Jersey says the issue is about effectiveness, not the size of the public sector.
In Guernsey both issues remain important, especially when considering the increasingly urgent need to resolve the island’s funding issues.