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Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Armchair's budget analysis

Armchair Critic's an astute fellow and rarely missed the beat with his commentaries on the Government and their crooked ways. He left a comment on Local Bodies that neatly sums-up and exposes National for the conniving rats they are :-)

Armchair Critic said...

There's a couple of things that I'd like to say were sleight of hand, but that would be far too charitable.
First there was the $500m reduction in contributions towards the Christchurch rebuild. Mysteriously it occurred at pretty much the same time as CCC found, according to the Korda Mentha report, a $500m shortfall in their budget. Coincidence, of course.
Then there was the $375m for even more roads in Auckland. Miraculously it's $3m more than the surplus announced, and it's stated to be a loan. Only by making it a loan can National put it on the books as an asset and say "we made it to surplus". Behaviour like that is sailing dangerously close to being fraud.

2 comments:

Armchair Critic said...

Once upon a time there was this company that took a loan and entered it into their books as income. They went bust not too long after. It had already been well established that there is a fundamental difference between income/expenditure and lending/borrowing. So it's funny to see, twenty or more years later, that our government is playing fast and loose with their definitions. No, I take that back, it's not funny at all, especially when you consider that the government like to boast of their economic and business credentials and, conversely, deride those of their opponents, it's contemptible.
Meanwhile, and speaking of fiscal holes spanning tens to hundreds of millions of dollars (or, maybe if you prefer, people who can't spot the difference between spending and loaning), how's that dam on the Ruataniwha River looking? Since irrigation is such a wonderful idea it's obvious that investors will be flocking to fund the project. Right?

robertguyton said...

You'd think, and yet...