If cutbacks are to be made a good starting point would be to reduce deputies’ pay
OUR government has informed us many times that we are currently £100m. in debt. After the Budget debate Deputy Soulsby said: ‘We are in a £100m. worse position than we were this time last year and the States have decided not to do anything about it’. The first thing that comes to mind is if we have a £100m. debt that was accumulated over the last 12 months, we must have been debt-free 12 months ago. We know we were not, and this massive amount of money we are in debt for has been climbing for years, but has accelerated over the past 12 months.
As for the States choosing to do nothing about it – nothing has changed in that direction. There have been – and still are – ways of making revenue but the way our States has dithered over the years and wasted money on stupid ideas and employing experts – who they took no notice of anyway – to tell them things a 10-year-old could have worked out. There has been paid parking for one. For decades they spent hours waffling about it and never put it in place. They spoke for years about reclaiming land that we now know as the North Beach to put a multi-storey car park on which was, at one point, suggested to be a paid-parking area. That never materialised for some reason, like it would look an eyesore. Have any of these people looked at our seafront? Then there is the biggest income provider of them all. That is taxing everybody on all their income and looking after the rich by capping off what they have to pay. Let’s face it, the ones our government would gladly get rid of – the poor old age pensioners – are having to pay taxes on their pension as well as many paying social in case they have to go into care at some time. Businesses have got away with it for years and many, if not all the big boys, are placing their cash in their business, so they do not have to pay tax on it. Then there are the people who come and work here for a short time, pay tax then get it refunded when leaving the island. So, at the end of the day, we are still in a massive mess and they still do not know how to correct it except to threaten us with more cutbacks and threats of projects like hospital extensions or rebuilds stopping. Might I suggest if cutbacks are to be made a good starting point may be to reduce the amount of money our deputies are paid. Oh heck, I may have touched a deeper nerve there than any of the other suggestions – but I am not the only one who thinks this way, believe me. To hear one deputy in their meeting say we are in the last-chance saloon must rankle with Deputy Lester Queripel because he said that years ago. Just proves how our deputies do not listen to anyone they seem to not want to hear.
ROD HAMON
5 Rosemount
Mont Arrive
St Peter Port