Easing into Snake Year gradually. Yesterday’s Standard reports Financial Secretary Paul Chan’s suggestions for tackling the government’s budget deficit…
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has put forward potential areas for cost-cutting within education and health care and says adjustments will be made to the HK$2 fare scheme for the elderly and disabled in response to the fiscal deficit.
…He said the HK$2 fare scheme for the elderly cannot remain unchanged indefinitely as its current model is not financially sustainable.
…Regarding proposals to reduce or freeze civil servant salaries, Chan highlighted the importance of considering their impact on the private sector, particularly given the low unemployment rate.
With declining student numbers, maybe there are ways to trim education expenditure. But how can he cut health spending when public hospitals are already under-resourced?
Assuming big tax hikes are out of the question, the only real options are: axing big infrastructure projects; and reducing civil service costs.
Any justification for the huge Lantau reclamation went out the window when officials found that there is in fact space for several hundred thousand apartments in the New Territories (thanks to the miraculous disappearance of land ownership and other problems). And a public-sector pay freeze to bring government salaries into line with the private sector is long overdue.
Chan’s reported comments that lower civil service salaries would ‘impact the private sector, particularly given the low unemployment rate’ are puzzling. A tight supply of manpower will prevent private-sector employers from using government pay cuts as a pretext to reduce their workers’ pay (if that’s the undesirable impact he claims to foresee). Conversely, a mass exodus of government staff would prove that public-sector pay levels are in fact as low as they can get.
The real problem is that civil servants would whine like crazy. Maybe a threat to bring in Elon Musk would focus their minds.
Regarding the $ 2- transport scheme, I have a theory: in every Hongkie family with a senior person there is the “family Octopus card”. It lies on the dining table and anyone who is going to make a MTR/ bus trip can use it to travel around town happily, especially on longer and more expensive trips. This way, the family can easily save 1-2 thousand per month.
Every day I see fellow travelers on $2- trips who are definitely not seniors.
Typical, just as I was planning for next month to move my office into the DB ferry for $2 rent and they might cut it off before I get started.
The $2 transport fee is a godsend for old people. It is essential for their mobility and dignity. It’s disgraceful that a man earning $400k per month++ would even consider it.
So who agreed the mechanism whereby the differential between the full travel fare and $2 is paid by the government to the operators? The MTR and bus companies must be rubbing their hands at this. Either allow discounted fares and let the transport operators suck it up or raise the $2 to $2.5. Surely there is someone in government with access to the stats and a spreadsheet?
Oh, and stop building white elephants. A 50,000 seat stadium to replace a 40,000 one so that someone can build over the Wanchai sports ground? Did the 40,000 stadium even fill up at last years Rugby Sevens? Who wins from that?
I cannot see the govt revoking the existing JY cards of 60-64 yr olds. More likely they’ll just up it t0 $2.5 or $3 for them, or all JY holders. They could also (instead) cap it at, say, $1,500-worth of fares monthly ($50 per day). Most likely, they’ll just do nothing, though.
So we save money by taking from the oldest and the poorest. Obviously their morale doesn’t matter. The elderly rich don’t use buses or the MTR as this would entail mixing with the riffraff.These decisions are made by those who drive or are driven around in cars. How about larger fines for illegal parking and increased tolls for tunnels. A more immediate saving would be to abolish the Legislative Assembly and the Executive Council since they have no purpose and are filled with overpaid shoeshiners.
A couple of points:
– the government pays the difference between $2 and the fare that the person would have paid otherwise under concessions from the transport operator. For people over 65 the MTR and bus companies already give 50% discount from their own pocket. So the 60-64 year olds do contribute a disproportionate share of the total cost to the government.
– anyone in receipt of disability allowance is also entitled to a $2 personalised Octopus (with a photo); there are tens of thousands of these of all ages, and, as they say in wokeland, “not all disabilities are visible”. If you can persuade a HA psychiatrist that you are depressed then you can get the card. I know someone who is clearly under 60 and has such a card. She gets stopped maybe once or twice a year by staff at MTR or ferry gates and asked to show the Octopus with photo.