March 29, 2009
Looking at the 2008 annual report for the Hastings Council, ,you might be surprised to see total revenue of nearly $100 million ($92.16M to be exact).The HDC is big business, employing just under 400 people, and spending many millions of dollars in contracted services and consultancy fees … these three account for some $37.5 million [...]
March 29, 2009
There’s an urban legend dating from the 1930s that goes like this … An English tourist was motoring round Germany when he drove round a corner and crashed straight into a German army tank. The tank disintegrated! It was made of papier-mâché. This proved that the whole Adolf “I want to conquer the world” Hitler’s [...]
March 29, 2009
There is something disconcerting for the layperson seeing economic experts arguing over whether we’re receding into a depression, or just depressed about a recession. The mega-trillion transfusions of freshly printed money being pumped into their ailing economies by United States and Great Britain are starting to make Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe look like a model of [...]
March 29, 2009
Hastings District Council has adopted their proposed 2009/19 Long Term Council Community Plan ( LTCCP ), with what could possibly be one of the lowest rate increase in New Zealand for the coming 2009/10 year.The rate increase of 1.68% is an improvement over the past average years of 3-4%. What were some of the issues [...]
March 29, 2009
Napier – A Blue Chip Stock? Mayor Barbara Arnott sat down with BayBuzz recently to discuss Napier’s pending budget and long-term plan. I have my beefs with the Mayor, and I hear from others that do as well. But any city would consider itself fortunate to have as effective a champion as this mayor, whatever [...]
March 29, 2009
For the first time in my experience, the Regional Council’s long-term plan has a true strategic underpinning. This is the result of intensive analysis considering future scenarios, emerging issues and trends, and the most optimal way in which the Council can best benefit the Hawke’s Bay region with its considerable resources. The Council’s Embracing Futures [...]
March 29, 2009
“All governments are failures,” Oscar Wilde once proclaimed. It’s quite true. They have a great deal of power, limited and infrequent accountability, and can fund any project they like with the taxes they demand from us. That is hardly an environment that is conducive to efficiency and competence. A prime example recently was the government [...]
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