PAC: CON JOB

Nelson City Council vested interests, are so desperate to force a performing arts centre [PAC] onto the community, against the will of the majority, they are resorting to extreme sleight of hand and outright deception in their attempts to justify this rogue economic white elephant.
The worst of these deceptions centres around the bafflingly inexplicable and hugely excessive costs of this flight of fancy. These costs are so illogical and incomprehensible they can only be described as foolhardy madness.
The previous LTCCP sold a $30M PAC to the public on the basis that it was a regional facility to be funded as an equal three way partnership between the NCC, the TDC, and the Millenium Trust. That plan explicitly committed each partner to a $10M share. Thus it has always, only ever been proposed, that the Nelson ratepayers commitment to this project was but $10M.
Since then the TDC has backed out of the project and the Trust has never raised a cent, and has since evaporated off the face of the earth. As a consequence the PAC no longer enjoys the status and therefore funding, as a regional facility.
To avoid that irritating inconvenience, the city council has covertly and without any declaration or notification or consultation, secretly altered its plans to change the status of the project from a regional facility to a community facility.
However the implications of that secret little stroke of the pen are massive, and hugely expensive. That covert change alters the whole economic and funding structure of the project, by landing the entire $30M plus commitment and responsibility for the project, solely at the feet of Nelson ratepayers.
Those vested interests are so desperate to force this project through, they are prepared to fly in the face of this 300% shift in financial commitment, and that desperation is unacceptably distorting the rating burden. It is this single issue that is currently forcing the imposition of those diabolical funding practices, such as the holiday from hell, and the doubling of rates, interest and debt.
There is a lot more of this financial tap dancing going on over the PAC which is so grossly distorting the rating burden. Accordingly we will explore this subject further over the coming days.