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Common sense priorities
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No set of solutions could ever be perfect or please everyone but, to give credit where it is due, Senator Le Sueur’s third and final States Business Plan, published yesterday, presents a quietly reassuring picture of the extent to which they have succeeded.
While no one is likely to be jumping for joy, for we are not yet out of the woods by any means, the promise of returning to the black by 2013 while also maintaining an acceptable level of public services must count as a satisfying note on which to bow out for a fine politician whose past leadership roles at Social Security and the Treasury have been characterised by prudence and far-sightedeness.
If Jersey’s public finances are on a sounder footing than those of many jurisdictions, it should not be forgotten that most of the burden required to achieve that has been borne by the taxpayer. The promised reduction in the size and cost of the public sector is only just starting to take effect and the hopes for increased tax receipts through economic growth have long since disappeared into the realms of wishful thinking.
When the necessarily restrained spending plans are followed in a few months from now by the Budget debate on how to pay for them, the States should therefore remember that that same taxpayer is now very much in need of the proverbial even break.
And if Middle Jersey must continue to take unpalatable medicine, it will do so more readily if the Treasury Minister has by then found ways of keeping his promise to tax the non-resident businesses who are currently not contributing as a side effect of the controversial zero-ten regime.
Meanwhile, even in today’s straitened circumstances, the Business Plan contains some welcome examples of common sense priorities coming to the front of the queue for limited funds.
These include the overdue allocation of a significant sum, in this case £9m, for the repair of the Island’s almost criminally neglected roads, along with other unglamorous infrastructure components like sewers and sea walls. Proposed investment in health services continues to outstrip inflation and an additional £1m has been earmarked for a much-needed campaign to recruit and retain front-line nurses.
Steady progress with such basic essentials will be a fitting legacy for a Chief Minister who has always been more concerned with practical results than with headlines or grand projects. We hope that Senator Le Sueur’s successors will also heed his wise parting advice to them to place for greater emphasis in future on economic diversification and pursue closer collaboration with Guernsey
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