Cut and spend
Tuesday 21st July 2009, 3:00PM BST.
Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf and Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur outline the new States Business Plan. Picture by David Ferguson (00748565)
STATES revenue and capital spending will top £754m next year – just over £8,200 for every man, woman and child in Jersey.
Although spending is up from last year’s figure of £727m, the package includes cuts in pay and services to fund growth in some department budgets.
Money from the economic stimulus plan agreed earlier this year could take next year’s spending right up to the £800m mark. And the States look to be on the verge of entering a period of structural deficits – accounts are expected to be over £50m in the red until 2012.
The 2010 Business Plan, published today by the Council of Ministers, outlines next year’s spending plans as well as proposals for new legislation and sell-offs from the States’ vast £1.4bn property portfolio. Proposed sell-offs include the offices currently occupied by the Planning and Transport departments at South Hill as the States try to hit a £4m per year target for property sell-offs.
The plan proposes £17m worth of cuts – the first Business Plan to do so – that will pay for a similar amount of growth in budgets for new services. Those cuts are based on pay and benefit savings from this year (£6.7m), savings by departments (£6m), pro-rata savings across departments (£4m), corporate savings (£0.5m) and implementation of Comptroller and Auditor General saving proposals (£0.1m).
Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur said that the process of arriving at the Business Plan – which has been lodged with the States today ahead of the September debate – had been a tough one for his new Council of Ministers.
• Full details in today’s Jersey Evening Post
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Anyone who has travelled through the airport recently will have been stunned at the amount of development and investment in retailing for visitors leaving the Island.
When the new terminal was constructed its design was such that departing passengers could actually get into the terminal and seek shelter, refreshment and comfort breaks during period when the airport was closed due to fog. The recent developments have isolated all those facilities, and no doubt we are soon to see a return to tents being erected outside the terminal for passengers who are delayed through bad weather, who will be unable to spend their money in the new facilities and will have to queue to use the limited toilet facilities that now remain in the departure concourse. Probably the emergency tent and portaloo contract have already been awarded
When is this ridiculous waste of money and failure to plan in a “joined up manner” going to end. Every tax payer on the Island pays for these mistakes, and despite brave election statements , not one of our politicians appears to have the skill, courage or desire to publicly stand up and start to get the states expenditure, and abuse of our public funds under control?
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£754M for 100,000 people. Absolutely absurd. Cut the beaurocracy, cut the waste, and cut the number of states workers by 20%.. I for one have seen enough new railings, signs and nobbly pavements to last a lifetime.
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£754M and we still need £200M to sort out our sewerage system – our hospital needs a good overhaul and we still have to send desperately ill people to the UK and Guernsey – pathetic!
All the funds accumulated by former more thrifty States members during the “years of plenty” are being steadily frittered away, putting on a showy display to the outside world whilst underneath it all the Island’s infrastructure is steadily falling into decay.
When will the electorate wake up, I wonder?
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Bill (no 2), 100% correct. To start with: too many paid politicians. We have money to pay their salaries and benefits plus all the outside consultants plus all the paper pushers, but most useful decisions are not implemented as we seem too poor (e.g. the paedophile register). Based on Jersey “parliament” size, the UK should have thousands of MPs.
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£8.2k per individual is a ridiculous sum of money, no wonder they want to increase the population head count! I want to see some massive savings throughout all States Departments not robbing one to finance another, thats not a saving in my world!
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If they knew where the money was going I might be more inclined to think they could do something.
The lack of solid figures makes these claims of cuts laughable.
Cutting down on permanent staff then spending even more money getting in agency staff for example.
“We spent more but look how much we saved”
I await the manipulated statistics that go along with that phrase.
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Am I missing something?
“STATES revenue and capital spending will top £754m next year”….”Although spending is up from last year’s figure of £727m, the package includes cuts in pay and services to fund growth”.
Whichever way I look at it this still says to me they will spend more next year than they did this year. Why when we are in a recession??
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I get the impression that Tez & Fill that dynamic duo in the States are trying to justify their inability to manage the island finances and we get the blame for their cock-ups !!!
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Incompetence linked with grandiosity….and fumbled into practice by a commercialy anorexic civil service.result: just look around you.
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Hmmm. Cut the states workforce by 20%? So we would then have approx 1500 more people flooding the job market. There are not enough jobs as it is, so that would mean income support, possibly housing and other benefits.
1500 less workers means less tax revenue, so income tax may have to go up for the rest of us, either that or GST, and the remaining 80% of the work force would then be struggling to meet the demands that are now put on them, probably resulting in more people going off with stress.
I can think of better ways to save money.
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We all know that the lunatics took control a long time ago, but it way past the time to reign in this out-of-control bunch that masquerade as politicians.
The States budget should aim to be reduced by at least 5% over each of the coming years, and a good starting point is to 1] reduce the head count in the States Chamber and 2] within the number employed by the States of Jersey.
Regrettably, we all know that there is more chance of seeing penguins surfing at St Ouens than anything sensible coming from our political masters.
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Aw! the answer is just build more homes in the green zone and scrap quallies, I’m a local boy and i’m tired of seeing the poor Poles crammed into sub standard accomodation, we need to help these people get jobs and benefits which they deserve for coming all this way to Jersey. If they gave the Poles a few States jobs we would be a lot better off. We should employ the Poles because they speak Polish and can help the other Poles get onto the housing ladder and into the jobs market. We need some lateral thinking here.
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Nellie Macon asked, “When will the electorate wake up, I wonder?”
The electorate is only too alert to what is being done in its name; the comments on this article (and others) are evidence of this.
It is our benighted and self-serving government that is sleeping and unaware of the growing tide of adverse public opinion.
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When will the States learn that selling of their assets is not sustainable. This is the equivalent of using the rainy day fund. While this can contribute some additional temporary funding it should not be budgeted into the accounts.
I see that the Town Park is also being set back again. We are only 12 years on from a petition by Islanders to ask the States for the park but then what do petitions mean to these people! So the money has been re-allocated but don’t worry some developer is going to pick up the tab……don’t hold your breath.
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What is needed in my humble opninion to wake up our complacent and incompetent states members is a bit of French style direct action , if the same amount of people that signed the petition against GST refused to fill out their tax forms or rates demands next year , they could not afford to take you all to court to make you comply .
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Nellie Macon Posted July 21, 2009 at 5:01 pm
“When will the electorate wake up, I wonder?”
I take it your son with the help of all your expertise will get us out of this mess then?
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Someone raised the issue of outside consultants being used, can we get a figure to JUST how much money is spent on such people and also do some proper asking around to find out whether or not their advice was really needed. I know of two situations where a completely unqualified person could have done their job and come up with the same answer!
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@10 – 1500 more workers looking for work?
Perhaps – but how many States workers are non-local..
From a very well informed source in the States, in her department 50% are non-local – Polish in fact…
I understand around 1 in 10 of the population is now Polish – now if we had proper immigration control and less immigrants, we wouldnt have so many people, and thus wouldnt need so many houses, hospital beds, social security etc and thus cost of running the Island would be less.
For the record I have nothing against Polish people OR any other nationality. The states have simply failed to control the number allowed to be here.
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Bill…how right you are mon vie.I too am not a racist,Control, we have many desperados from the continent running about here,yet we ignore them many oif whom are on wanted lists where they come from,many weapon carrying,ask the local doormen,perhaps it will take a leading politicians kin to get chivved before thay wake up to this,the bottom line is employ your own before others,check the quality of those who come in.and their criminal pedigree, my sister emeigrated to Oz, is a child care nurse married an ozzy and still when entering the country had to undergo a two year probationary period,which means put a foot wrong in that period and you are automatically deported.we are way too soft here,and need our own border controls for all sorts of sensible reasons.
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I think the states need to think twice and buy local!!! rather than paying someone to come over and advise on what we need to do, For example the states paid a small fortune for someone to come over and look at the road and traffic light set up in town! well if you haven’t noticed traffic has got worse and the traffic lights are a joke, Take first tower for example! its a joke so dont spend the cash on a project that i could do for £50.00 in a day!
There have been a lot of comments on the fact that the states are trying to bring more migrant workers over to add to the tax system. As proven in the uk and all over europe this does not work! and its proven. look at Gordon Brown and Alister Darling and look at the mess of the uk all through trying to tax more people! If the jobs are not there you wont get the cash, infact you will be giving it away! yet again Proven in Germany and France, they changed there social system and the uk started gettin a mass influx of people looking for either work or handouts.
Give anyone mass amounts of money and they will always find ways of spending it, start giving less and they will have to rethink certain things. Tax uk companies over here and we might get the money back.
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Bill, that is concerning from even just a language point of view. If the States’ Polish employees are anything like ours then they’re English will not be very good (regardless of what their CV claimed). I have to admit that I suspect a department would run more efficiently if everyone was fluent in English. And efficiency cuts costs, something that the States desperately need to do.
Immigration when properly controlled and not just en masse from one country is great but the opposite causes major problems and Jersey is clearly going to see this over the next few years. Even Scotland, where the Poles were initially made very welcome, is starting to struggle with the mass of immigration and the unnecessary demands it is placing on health and education services.
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How much of 754M gets paid in legal expenses and paying off States workers, how much goes on final year salary pensions, how much goes on paying the vast number of States workers employed to count paperclips, How much goes on getting interest rates wrong, how much goes on the long term ‘sick’, how much goes on paying for services we dont need.
Conservately I would estimate that at least 50% of the 754M i.e. 377M, was wasted as a result of poor management, lack of skills, poor policy, and poor leadership. Sack all the people in power int he States and get someone from the UK over who knows what they are doing and sort out States once and for all. It makes me sick that i have have worked all year to pay £8,200 on a load of tosh!
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Can we have a breakdown of exactly what is costing us ‘each’ £8,200 and how this is justfied?
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I really like Reggio’s idea…a bit of a revolt would do good and actually make these idiots realise where the buck stops really….
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Magnolia Man
you say the electorate are awake, how come so little of us actually voted? I wonder how many people passing comments on these pages ACTUALLy voted?
I go along with the “if you didn’t vote, you can’t critise” view. Even if the person/people you voted for didn’t get in, you still have your say. There is no other way.
I would like to know how the island’s ‘leaders’ can justify the waterfront, the cuts to public spending AND still want to increase its per head spending.
I’m not getting a rise, and have to live with it; so should the States!
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£800M is a huge amount of money, but lets compare Jersey with the UK
1. Jersey max income tax 20%, UK those paying 20% in Jersey would be paying 40% or even 50%
2. Parish rates in Jersey say £350 per year, equivalent in Uk (council tax) would be at least £1500
3. Road tax in UK say £150, Jersey zero
4. UK MOT – say £50, Jersey n/a
5. UK separate sewage charge say £250 P/A, Jersey no extra charge
6. Standard of Jersey Schools, excellent, many schools rebuilt – not the case in the UK
7. Medical Waiting list – Good in Jersey
8. Charge for prescription items UK £7, Jersey zero
9. Typical parking charge Jersey 54p/h, UK £1/h
10. Jersey Petrol say 95p/l, UK £1.05/l
11. Jersey £550M in credit, UK Billions in Debt
12. Jersey Mortgage tax relief, UK none
13. GST 3%, UK 15%
Downsides:-
1. Charge to see doctor £33, UK zero
2. House prices in Jersey very high
3. Price of goods in shops, + private services expensive.
It is easy knock States workers, making them out to be lazy and overpaid. Whilst in any organisation there are some poor performers, there are also a huge number of dedicated and hard working professionals, doing the dirty, or unpleasant jobs, which everybody takes for granted, but would soon notice if they were not done to a high standard.
Yes the £800 million budget could be reduced, either by cuts in services or increased charges:-
For example:-
1, cutting teaching assistants in schools – result poorer educational standard.
2. Dont rebuild schools, leave them in whatever state they are at the moment.
3. charge for prescriptions
4. Increase parking charges
5. Dont subsidise school buses
6. Let our lovely parks go to seed
7. Dont give our kids a skatepark to play in, let them roam the streets instead.
8. Dont clean the beaches, leave the rubbish to build up
9. Dont have lifeguards on the beaches, if you cant swim stay out of the water.
10. Increase GST
11. Increase fuel duty
12. Dont resurface the roads
13. Dont bring in legislation which costs money to enforce, but protects the environment or vulnerable.
14. Dont treat the sewage, Guernsey rely on strong tides!
15. Reduce the amount of social housing
16. Dont leave empty properties for years, knock them down and develop the land, – eg Fort Regent Swimming pool, Old JCG, etc
17. Dont provide states nursery places, its your choice to have kids.
18. Get rid of the parish system, surely 1 body can do it cheaper than 12.
19. Increase school class sizes.
20. Employ cheaper inexperienced teachers, doctors, nurses etc.
As you will notice a number of cost cutting measures involve health and education, which actually account for the lions share of the 800M, but how many of those savings to these services would be welcomed by those affected by them? Or how many of the services would we be happy to pay more for? None!
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reggio good point direct action is a way to get governments to listen to the majority. Mutiny is always a worry for those in charge. When people become totally disillusioned, then yes there might well be protests and direct action.
If this were France the government would have had a severe shake up by now, luckily for our government people over here appear to be too soft or too trusting. However I believe there is a breaking point and it only has to be exceeded, then the feathers will well and truely fly.
So basically the island is going to need the best part of £1B next year to get by! Me thinks too much money is being wasted on too many chiefs for one thing. Time for a cull to get things into proportion and to enable the island to function properly I think.
I would also advise getting rid of the CoM as they appear to not be up to the job in my opinion. God knows what things will be like when the golden boy gets the reins.
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Only six months ago we learnt that people from all over the world are flying to soft touch Jersey to steal our medical care.
Not only that but with our unrestricted immigration people are coming in to have babies and bring their grannies, parents etc for health care. Until this insanity is stopped the tax payers will suffer
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Quentin Smythe wrote in message 12:
” . . . i’m tired of seeing the poor Poles crammed into sub standard accomodation, we need to help these people get jobs and benefits which they deserve for coming all this way to Jersey. If they gave the Poles a few States jobs we would be a lot better off. We should employ the Poles because they speak Polish and can help the other Poles get onto the housing ladder and into the jobs market. We need some lateral thinking here.”
No, Quentin. We need some *straightforward* thinking here.
With so many Jersey men and women unemployed and on the dole we should ask ourselves why we need cheap immigrant labour instead of doing the jobs ourselves.
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Ali asked me in message 25:
“you say the electorate are awake, how come so little of us actually voted? I wonder how many people passing comments on these pages ACTUALLy voted?”
If people do not take the trouble to vote, and it only takes a few seconds to mark a cross in the voting booth, they cannot complain later on.
They had their chance to make a difference to the island’s political regime and they just could not be bothered.
Incidentally, it is compulsory to vote in some countries – Australia is an excellent example.
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Leah Holmes writes ‘then they’re English will not be very good”. And Leah’s English is miserable too, but she want’s to lecture against the Polish! It’s racist! Pathetic!
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M,
You clearly don’t understand the meaing of being “racist” with comments like that, Polish are the same race as most people from the UK, Caucasian.
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Oh deah!
I had to scroll up to find out what M was on about.
Now, I don’t usually find much wrong with Leah’s English but on this occasion I had to chuckle.
We come to expect “there” in place of “their”. But “they(a)re”? What is this elusive skill that no JCat, local or five year time server has
in Leah’s workplace?
Agree with you, though, on languages. The sooner that the entire planet speaks only one language (English) the better. Then we can decide what currency to settle with and which side of the car to put the steering wheel on.
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Jub
As I do not really buy your argument over racism I Googled it and came up with what looks a fair definition to me.
“The UN does not define “racism”, however it does define “racial discrimination”: according to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,
… the term “racial discrimination” shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin…”
Your argument that “most people from the UK” and the Poles are the same race would be better
justified by going up one level to the Human Race.
I would say that unless we pledge to use the words “nationalistic” or “jingoistic”, “racist” does just fine when used in the local context e.g. “Portuguese and Poles are taking all our jobs and sending all their money back home to build mansions”.
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28. How right you are,and stealing is the correct word.the financial glory days are gone,we must look after ourselves,and batten the hatches for what is to be a rough ride for a while,we must stem all these cash leaks, we have ministers lying through their teeth,saying we are cutting back whilst spending more.If I spend a quid this week and Two next,how can I claim to be cutting back… lying is an intent to deceive..the C.O.M. can not properly manage our money,and spend it as though it were theirs,and why are we paying a so called auditor general all this money if we still are in a state of accounting chaos..?
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Harry, I’m not sure what your point is. Are you suggesting that the 854M is money well spent and the only way to cut back is to reduce services and expenditure? If so what a load of RUBBISH! You must work in the States to say something like that!
FACT: There are too many chiefs and not enough Indians in the States, which has the highest paid States paid top tier workers in the world. They should all be sacked and fresh blood brought in.
There is a saying amongst people on the Island, once your in the States you have to kill someone to get sacked. People take 6 weeks a year regularly on the sick because they can! try doing that in the private sector.
I am all for public servants but public idiots I am agaisnt. The whole system is rotten to the core. Its time to through out the old and bring in the new, its about time tax payers got value for money the same as we expect from the private sector. get rid of the old boys club,
The States IS A JOKE!
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