1,000 show interest for Taxpayers' Alliance

Monday 03 September 2018

Around 1,000 islanders are lining up to join a newly-formed organisation aimed at "reforming taxes, cutting spending and giving a voice to taxpayers.”

Roger Bale, a former director at British Channel Island Ferries, invested £50,000 earlier this year to set up the Jersey Taxpayers' Alliance (JTA).

While the first few months of the association have been a bit slow – apparently due to the elections and the introduction of GDPR - Mr Bale told Express that things are starting to pick up, with the number of islanders expressing interest in the organisation now "nudging a thousand."

So far, he says that the idea has been "most successful" with retired people, and therefore wants to hear from people of many ages to "ensure the continuity"of the JTA once it gets in motion. The date of the first meeting is yet to be fixed, but Mr Bale assures that it will be soon, and is keen to set a topic to discuss.

Even States Members have welcomed the idea, according to Mr Bale. "Some of them have described how frustrating it was that people in committees without any knowledge of a subject could derail a project. They said an outside voice would be helpful to keep things on track.” 

Pictured: Former States Members have welcomed the idea of the JTA, according to the founder of the association.

Mr Bale explained he started the JTA in the hope it would become “a voice politicians have to respond to.” “If you write to them, they don’t need to reply but we want to be an organisation that can command a reply and get States members’ to respond on issues.”

“Our concern is not the tax policy,” Mr Bale assures. “Unless it is stupid and is going to cost a lot of money,” he adds. The JTA is instead focusing on how taxpayers’ money is spent. 

Mr Bale described the £466million Future Hospital project as a glaring example of the States' failure in that area.

“The Minister for Health spent £2 million on doing a rerun of what had been presented to the States. There was no explanation for it. He did this out of his own a bat while there is a queue for scans that could easily be sorted with that money. We have now spent a total £28 millions and we don’t even have a plan.”

Pictured: Mr Bale thinks that Student Finance should target careers that will benefit the island.

Mr Bale also takes issue with the Overseas Aid budget, which he says should be targeted to areas where success can be measured. “I am not against aid  and I am not talking about disaster relief as it is completely different. But at the moment we spend money on projects where there is no way of knowing if they are successful. For example, we spent £2 million on female literacy in one West Indian island, this we can measure.

“We have to make sure we can measure the value for money is good. Aid should be concentrated on an island or country and one particular aspect that we can measure.”

When it comes to undergraduate funding, Mr Bale thinks it should be more limited, with degrees only fully funded for doctors, nurses, finance professionals or teachers. “We keep bringing those people in. We should fund studies in those fields to be able to have those jobs sourced locally. 

“If someone else wants to study things we don’t need locally, they should have access to a loan. Nobody should not go to university if they have the ability  the taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay all courses. We need to focus on course that have a benefit for the island.”

Pictured: Mr Bale thinks the States should learn how to held a budget.

Summarising his idea, Mr Bale said: "Every penny spent should be accountable for to make sure it hasn’t been unnecessary spent...It’s our money. Since the introduction of GST, everyone is a tax payer. The States don’t generate the money, they simply collect it."

While Mr Bale wants States Members to spent money more wisely, he also demands tighter budget-keeping, hoping for a States Member to be directly and solely responsible for the budget alone on each new project.

"It would help keep everyone in line," he says. “If you look at the Care Inquiry, there was an initial budget of £6million. We went way over that, but no one put their hands up at any moment to say, ‘we are spending more than we should here.' Anybody in life knows how to hold a budget.

"We don’t want our money to be treated like confetti anymore.”