Ratepayers’ money wasted

I agree completely with Jeremy Sollars’ thoughts on the council’s predilection for wasting ratepayers’ money. We do not need a “big anything” edifice in Stanthorpe or anywhere else in the shire.
It worries me a great deal that our council appears to have failed to recognise that times are hard and that money is tight for most people, even though all forms of media have been full of reports on that problem for months now. It would seem appropriate that the council should be cutting costs, not looking for more ways to waste ratepayers’ hard-earned dollars.
The attitude seems to be that ratepayers can be milked for more and more funds whenever the council feels the need, rather than have the poor over-worked council staff look for ways to trim costs or even reduce rates. It was interesting to read reports recently that the councillors were congratulating themselves on the completion of the very expensive upgrade to Australiana Park. As a contrast, every ratepayer I have spoken to regards that expenditure as a totally unnecessary waste of money.
Perhaps our councillors mighspend a little time checking on the real world out there. Warwick suffers from a great deal of under-employment, with most of the big employers keeping their employees on part-time and/or casual arrangements with the effect that many workers have jobs but don’t earn a living wage. There is also a sizeable retired and pensioned element in the town’s population. And yet the council will probably seek to steal above-inflation rate increases from these people in the upcoming budget. That is easier than making hard decisions. If our leaders cared to look overseas they might notice that several countries in Europe are already bankrupt, largely through policies of too much fancy expenditure on unnecessary items and an over-inflated and over-compensated public service. Even Britain and America are teetering on the edge of similar precipices.
Closer to home, our shire is already on the State Government’s watch list for excessive borrowings and relatively poor financial management. It is certainly way past time when our local representatives should be looking to cut costs and concentrate on core issues including road repairs in this year of natural disasters rather than seek even more funds to be wasted on monuments to their own self-importance.
Peter Breen, Warwick