Letters: Restore performing arts centre quickly

Sir Howard Morrison Performing Arts Centre.

Rotorua Lakes Council and Rotorua ratepayers have recently suffered two unavoidable financial blows - the necessary repairing of both our beautiful museum and of the Sir Howard Morrison Performing Arts Centre.

Repairs to our money-raising and iconic museum are a must - few would quibble with that - but, please, council, consult with your ratepayers before any decisions are made on the Performing Arts Centre.

We must cut our coat to fit our cloth. SHMPAC needs to be restored to a usable condition as quickly as possible; we do not need up to $18 million spent on a completely upgraded building, which could be out of action for three to five years during the work carried out on it.

Without SHMPAC, consider the immediate plight of our local artists and the long-term effect on national and international touring artists, who will cease including Rotorua in their itineraries for a very long period.

Our smaller city has many calls on its limited revenue, our wider ratepayers deserve to be consulted when the spending of money such as this is being considered.

Use our resources wisely and practically, please; restoring SHMPAC, so that it can be safe, appreciated and revenue-producing as quickly as possible, is one option. Other ratepayers may have others to suggest.

MARJ GRIFFITHS
Rotorua

Growing council debt

Deputy mayor Dave Donaldson's reassurances (Rotorua Daily Post, November 15) that the council's credit rating of AA- is still very good and that it saves over $400,000 annually totally misses the concerns ratepayers have regarding growing council debt i.e. that it is growing despite promises by the mayor that it would be reduced, that it has to be paid back and that the interest payments amount to about $10 million a year.

The credit rating is meaningless to most ratepayers and in another global financial crisis may amount to nothing if creditors demand repayment, while saving $400,000 annually pales in comparison to the annual interest on the millions borrowed and represents a real waste of ratepayers' money.

The council simply has to start living within its means like we all have to. Make the hard decisions and yes, if the money to earthquake strengthen the Performing Arts Centre will cost $2-3 million, then cut the budgets of other cost centres and reduce staffing rather than borrowing more. The head-in-the-sand attitude is completely irresponsible and if the council were run as a business, banks would have foreclosed long ago with a massive mortgagee sale on ratepayers' assets.

PAUL CARPENTER
Rotorua

Council debt significant

Councillor Donaldson's letter on council finances begs a response.

He equates the council AA minus rating as being good as it is the same for the trading banks. In fact the rate is okay as long as the economic conditions remain firm. With any adverse change the banks can make adjustments as they have financial reserves. The council has very limited reserves. Where else in any organisation do the shareholders [ratepayers] have to cough up when a company increases debt, and the current debt is very significant relative to the population of Rotorua.

To suggest that there are savings when it is cheaper to borrow is misleading as with the increased debt at some point it has to be repaid. Unfortunately the council generates insufficient income to retire a reasonable amount of debt. Just increasing debt on the basis that it costs less than before the credit rating was established is unacceptable.

But there is another problem looming. Ratepayers will have received new valuations and guess what, next year is not a council election year so we need to be prepared for large increases in our rates so that the following election year the rates will be held down.

Call me a cynic, no I am just a realist.

JOHN DYER
Lake Tarawera

School bullying

I wholeheartedly agree with Rosemary McLeod (Opinion, November 16) that it is not acceptable to bully anyone with Down syndrome especially a teenage girl. It is the lowest of the low who commit these crimes, it draws a comparison to slavery.

For action taken there is a reaction or consequence in this case and I wonder if Sally Haughton (principal of the school) has got the principles to take it - expel the ring leaders and suspend the rest for a week or better still don't let them sit their exams.

GAVIN MUIR
Rotorua