Jersey States Slammed For 'Rolls Royce' Spending

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

12 June 2002

The possibility of introducing tax increases in order to narrow a projected £40 million annual deficit faced a hostile reception in Jersey on Friday, according to a report in the Jersey Evening Post this week.

The JEP revealed that the vast majority of those attending the public meeting designed to outline revenue raising options were in favour of reducing States expenditure rather than increasing existing taxes on the Island, or introducing new ones.

Echoing the sentiments expressed at a previous meeting for the jurisdiction's business leaders, several of those attending slammed the authorities for 'Rolls Royce spending' on superfluous or cosmetic projects.

According to the Jersey Evening post, the increasing levels of bureaucracy and the growing civil service also came under fire. Advocate Mark Renouf was quoted by the newspaper as explaining to Senator Walker that:

'The resentment you are getting from the population is because everywhere around us we see people who should not be employed, or who should be employed elsewhere.'

The Finance and Economics Committee chief told the meeting that public response on the issue of introducing a value-added tax was fairly evenly divided, but admitted that the overwhelming majority of those attending the meetings have called for expenditure reductions. However, he attempted to reassure Jersey's residents that the situation is far from critical.

'We are in no way approaching a crisis,' he explained: 'After many years of surplus, which we have become accustomed to, we are now in the same situation as virtually any other government...It would only become a crisis if we did nothing.'

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