Rates Rises Equals Staff Costs.

Will Big Council Employ Majority of Voters? Hope everyone ‘coffed’ up, the expanded rates before losing the diminishing discount. As the law of diminishing returns is the principle ‘that as expenditure or investment increases each further increase produces a proportionately smaller return.’We see this every day in Gympie, the more we pay, the less return in services. Why is that, or should we not ask?

Everyone, I have asked state, ‘that including all the ‘add on’ cost that Council charge, that their Rate bill total, has doubled in the last 4 years.’ Of course, the next question, has the services doubled? That question gets the greatest laugh in Gympie.

Councils Making Work for Themselves.

The only figure that has nearly doubled is council staff, big government is here to stay in Gympie at that last Corporate Governance and Finance Committee Meeting – 27 July 2011 it was 487 ‘equiv full time employees’. From memory before the amalgamation it was in the vicinity of 250. So you know where your increased rates are going. If we added, the voting spouses of the 487 that is 974, then add in all the contractors who clean the park toilets, clean the acres of offices, build new council offices, to accommodate even more council staff, and so on. Then add in all the owners of businesses and their staff and voting families that are all financially dependent on having a bigger than ever, growing Council, we quickly realise that the largest industry in our region is the Council. Employment is a great thing, however, the danger in that of course, is as soon as soon as a potential Councillor candidate suggests making reduction in staff and cutting the spending power of Council, than that Council voting lobby, that you have bought and paid for, (now assumed to be at least 25% of the 31,000 voters in our region) can swing into action and ensure that those candidates do not get elected.

Elementary arithmetic can make it plain that if this big council policy is not blocked by the voting public who are not dependent on Council, then within a few years or even the next term, Council will be so big, that 51% of the voters will be dependent on it and then there will never be any chance in the future of limiting the ever increasing rates and enormously expanding Council.

Taking that conclusion further exposes the truth to another problem, which is already occurring at full power, ‘do not suggest repairing roads, as they require expenditure in gravel and machines, as that will cut the councils spending on wages, reducing employment, reducing the available spending in Gympie.

Correcting this problem is difficult, we have all had to do it, a wage earner has to live within his income, he budgets, the family has to budget, spend less on the phone. The pensioners have to save up to pay their rates. They budget, stay in bed when its cold, to save on heating, buy cheapest tinned food, so they can pay the rates. Private business and non profit associations do it all the time, they have to live within their means. Our Council, on the other hand has never done it, yes it has a budget, but it grows every year with no cuts. Never, have Council departments had to cut overall expenses by 5 or 10 percent, which in business is a normal sized cut, as cutting expenditure increases the proportionate return, in services. Our Council has never been forced to reduce expenditure, as it easily accommodates its financial problems by taking more out of the pot of Gympie Gold, more from you and me. It has to happen, or the system will eventually break.

Ron