Crampton and Nolan on Greens spending claims
Matt Nolan at TVHE blogs:
This one is genuinely disappointing as it seems to be an almost explicit misinterpretation of Budget forecast figures.
The numbers for claiming falling real expenditure come straight from the Treasury forecasts here, but are then deflated. This sounds good on the face of it, and people do this all the time. However, it ignores that there is both unallocated spending, and allowances for additional spending in future Budgets – both which largely get allocated to Health and Education on the day.
It is an “open” secret that the Health and Education numbers work this way – as both Labour and National want to announce increases in spending on these items on the day. [Note: It is just like “tax cuts to get rid of fiscal drag” – political marketing all the parties do].
In that context, saying that the real value of spending is going to fall on these items is empty rhetoric.
It is almost a lie.
Eric Crampton also explains:
So what do we have here? For each line, we have the expenditures by spending area. For example, health rises from $12,368m in 2009(actual) to $15,274 in the 2018 forecast. BERL then goes and deflates that by expected inflation; the Greens then claim that there’s a real cut in spending.
Now take a look at the line reading “Forecast for future new spending”. That’s the line where Treasury makes its best wink-wink-nudge-nudge guess as to future operating spending announcements, some of which it’s possibly already had to cost for future government policy announcements, and some of which will be based on expectations of future inflation adjustments.
When BERL runs its inflation adjusted accounting on Core Crown Expenditures, it finds a 9.9% nominal and 2.8% real spending increase over the next three years. That total Core Crown Expenditures categoryincludes the future spending increases. Those future spending increases have not been allocated across spending categories. If it were allocated proportionately across all categories, the weighted average of the different categories’ increases would wind up being 2.8% real. But BERL doesn’t assume that. It just takes each line from the BEFU and inflation adjusts it while ignoring the forecast future new spending.
This sort of manipulation does not help the credibility of BERL or the Greens. They knew they were being misleading.