Who is doing the numbers at Launceston Town Hall?

Just who is doing the numbers at Launceston Town Hall?

With two chartered accountants on Council Ald Finlay probably feels that she needn’t do the numbers. If she were more inclined to do a bit of adding up and taking away every now and then well she could claim to be some kind of critic. Apparently, she is not inclined. 

Spruiking ‘The Hawks’ as she does, and is doing now with a Hawks’ win in Launceston, she obviously feels that she can make a lot of noise without delivering on the substance. 

Saul Eslake tells us for every dollar spent on 'The Hawks' there is a $7.50 return to Launceston. If this is true then it will be the Airbnb proprietors, the hoteliers, the restaurateurs, a few retailers and the car hire firms who’ll be raking that in. It will not be distributed all that well throughout the community – at least not within the municipality. 

However, when we take into account the fact that Launceston's rates are set to rise by 2.8% to cover this council’s excesses, this alone makes nonsense of the Ald. Finlay spruiked ‘Hawkes Benefits’ and her prioritising. 

Then again, Ald. Finlay doesn’t do numbers as it seems that yet again she leaves that to the chartered accountants while she plays with the 'nice bits'. 

Someone must be benefiting from the capital expenditure going on at UTAS Stadium. The numbers there are starting to be quite impressive. With $1.62Million capital expenditure being spent at UTAS Stadium in total, that is $660K spent on lighting at UTAS Stadium, and $430 spent on a state of the art score board, and $280K being spent on a drop-in cricket pitch, and $250K spent on a turf farm to grow grass for UTAS Stadium, none of this is chicken feed. 

For the 'number crunchers' who pay rates, that looks like a $55 per ratepayer subsidy on capital expenditure at UTAS's York Park egged on by managerially inspired aldermanic enthusiasms. 

So, we well might ask Ald. Finlay in whose laps is all this largess might be falling? We could even ask if she is asking and when she will be letting us in on her questioning? Given that she is a Hawks spruiker and that she ranks this football team above the Launceston General Hospital and The Gorge, surely she will be able to share the news with her constituency. 

The UTAS Stadium cum York Park council operation is a cost centre that's being budgeted to generate a $2.8 million loss. That's getting close to being $100 per rateable property – every last one! The city's ratepayers cop it again. 

It is being claimed that every attendee at UTAS Stadium is being subsidised but ask the council and they wont tell you by how much. Ratepayers are stumping up this money but the numbers are a mystery for some reason. If it isn’t the case, then Ald Finlay will surely have the numbers to put all to right for us. If she doesn’t have them, well she will be able to prevail upon the chartered accountants on council to give them to her – perhaps. 

As likely as not the numbers will come to her in a closed council meeting, or even at one of those cutting and drying 'workshops' – the ones held between formal council meetings to work things out. 

Launceston’s ratepayers have not got much to worry about as council divides up the spoils and spreads ratepayers’ money about in the hope that something will get better soon. However, it would be good to get some reassurances. 

Yes, yes, it is very good for the Hawks and other clubs to be playing some of their games in Launceston. It is also very good for them to be bringing their supporters to the city to spend some money. The players and their supporters are all very welcome as Launceston transitions into a 'tourism centre'. 

However, let's have a bit of truth telling, some equitable distribution of costs and benefits and then some reality checking thrown in for good measure. Launceston's ratepayers cannot be carrying the can for the whole region all the time as Launceston is not the centre of the universe even if this bunch of aldermen deems it to be so.