From Steve Liron.
HAVING travelled back to Jersey on 22 October on the last BA flight out of Gatwick, after a short overseas business trip, I was of course amused to read in that day’s edition of your paper of the tax increases which will be imposed on a Jersey public long told by our elected representatives that they and our senior civil servants have no choice if the Island is to balance the books, as they just cannot cut back anymore.

Amused because up the front of the plane I had just travelled on was one of our better-known senior civil servants enjoying the best and most expensive that British Airways can offer; someone flying from London to Jersey for all of 35 minutes.

Now I won’t name the individual, as that is neither fair on him nor does it add to the point of this letter. What is relevant and apparent, though, is that to those of us on the outside looking in, Joe Public such as myself, there is still probably a lot of fat to cut and this cutting really ought to be implemented before taxes are raised.

GST, while being a progressive and fair ‘user pays’ measure to raise additional revenue, also allows the difficult decisions which States Members need to be making now, to be postponed almost indefinitely.

If we believe the official figures of ‘every 3% increase in the rate of GST equates to an additional £45M in tax collected’, the GST tap can be turned on whenever we face a projected revenue shortfall, and thus allow indecision and incompetence to continue. With this in mind, the really difficult and no doubt unpopular changes, which will have to come at some stage, will be left to be made by the next generation.

This, of course, has long been a failing of all too many Western governments, perhaps with the exception of the recently elected UK coalition administration. So, guys, take your cue from the Con-Dems and do what needs to be done now.

So to what rate will GST need to rise before our civil servants get the message and join the rest of the business community in cattle class, a decision made by most if not all companies in the private sector a long time ago?

Not until such time as all our public servants treat public money more carefully and with more respect, need I suggest as how they might treat their own precious savings, will we achieve much of the savings which, based on last Friday’s example, are in all likelihood close at hand but, unfortunately, still at arm’s length.