Blissful ignorance at the Council Table? / My reply to Karl du Fres

"Blissful ignorance at the Council Table" makes for an amusing read. 

Malcolm Muggeridge made some interesting observations about the 

media and one of them was "whatever the media was saying usually
the opposite was happening".

In the case of your contribution in today's paper there is more than

a grain of truth. However those witty comments leave out one of the 

most serious issues. This year we are well on the way to borrowing 

$400 million. Over the next 9 years we will have paid $287M

in interest on our borrowings.

Twenty years ago the Council had no debt, performing assets and

money in the bank. There were plenty of jobs and virtually no 

unemployment in the capital. We now have inter-generational debt 

and a massively over inflated view of the value of the city's asset base. 

Let me quote you from the 2013-14 Draft Annual Plan. 

Page 23 "Total borrowings are forecast to be $397.7 million at

the end of 2013/14 increasing to."??? "Over the same period our

forecast asset base totals $7.1 billion in 2013/14" Yeah-Right .

Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story. You know as well 

as I do that the realisable assets are more like $350million on a good day.

Has the media been sleeping also?

They certainly don't attend many council meetings, unlike 20 years ago!