We’re now on the final run-in to the Budget. Regular readers of these columns will, by now, have a pretty good understanding of what the government is proposing.
Described as a budget for stability, the commentary since its publication has been anything but stable for the government, with the principle criticism focussing on their proposed treatment of the Social Security funds – with Jersey’s own group of independent economists making fairly wide-ranging criticisms of spending, saving and borrowing.
As is pointed out on the preceding pages, no one has said the position is easy, or even of this government’s making; but any criticism could fairly be focussed over how much they have grasped the nettle, and how much will lie in the in-tray of the next Council of Ministers when it sits around the big table for the first time next June.
How many of the promises which got its members elected will they actually be able to keep, once they open the top drawer of the Treasury Minister’s desk, and find out how much money there really is to use?
But that argument cuts both ways. In the next two weeks, readers will see what changes other States Members want to see made to the Budget, which are likely to come thick and fast in the coming days.
Given the broader financial picture we are working in, they should be judged on the basis of how much better they will make our prospects in the long-term.
Short-term measures, with an election six months away, should be easy to spot; and remembered when it comes to voting next year. Why are they being proposed now, in the last hurrah of this administration? Beware those which claim to be about cutting the cost of living now, but which will actually create further instability in the future.
Equally, those which will mean still more upward pressure on costs, such as by introducing further bureaucracy which will need to be policed, measured and reported on, should also raise a large red flag.
What is really needed is fresh thinking. To paraphrase Henry Ford’s famous quote, there is an argument that says this Budget is really just about creating a faster horse. Anything more seems to be left for the future.
That is not to diminish the positive measures in it; it is just to say that there is little in the way of really innovative thinking: the type which changes the game, and sets the island on a truly different course.
