Auckland City spending

The Herald reports:

Auckland City intends spending $120,000 on a history of itself, in a swansong that minority councillors fear will glorify the ruling Citizens and Ratepayers faction.

The council’s finance and strategy committee voted yesterday to seek expressions of interest for the work, to cover the period since the local government reforms of 1989.

But the idea has infuriated the left-wing City Vision faction, which would rather see the money spent on furniture for Aotea Square shaped like “critters” – an American term that generally refers to domestic animals such as cows, horses or mules.

The author of the history book will be paid from money saved by a freeze in the past two years on fees of council and community board members.

I’ve got a novel idea. How about not spending the money on either the history of the last 21 years or on furniture shaped liked critters?

It’s good the money has been saved by a fees freeze, but that doesn’t mean it has to be spent. One can under-spend. A budget is a limit, not a target.