I’ve done the math and to me the answer is quite simple, we have to pay.

With 185,000 rate payers in Christchurch and 25 years we can get this thing done for $45 dollars a year, that’s less than a dollar a day (which ironically is what I’m currently giving to the project).

That’s just on $208 million dollars. Now the CCRL team tell me that they’re only needing ~$138 million dollars at present, and I think that’s more likely to look like $150 million dollars the way construction costs keep ramping up, so $45 dollars a year each might be a bit more than is needed, but if we collect it over 25 years, and it gets done in 5 years, we’ve got time to balance the amount.

The money should come from government debt and then be paid back by the community via the council special rate.

There will be some interest cost, and I think that the government should pick up that cost. At current OCR that’s a total of $112,817,868.55.

Why?

There’s a rule about separation between church and state and the state broke the rules, then the council endorsed it, then the government endorsed it further.

Our courts allowed a case to be brought against the church. The reality is that the church had a perfectly good plan, it was going to get one of the leading local design firms to design something new, something within the budget of money they had and move forward, but the court (the state) said no.

The Church said it would cost more than $200 million, it would appear they were right.

The court sided with the people who said it could be fixed for just over $100 million. The council went on to endorse that view by putting up $10 million from rate payers and the government put up $25 million in debt from the government.

They Were Wrong

It would now appear that those who said that the repair could be done for $105 million were wrong and those who endorsed the fact were also wrong, the council and the government, as such, they need to sort this out, we need to make good.

Why?

As a city and a country, we have traded on the back of this church for more than 145 years. It took more than 25 years to build.

I think that reality is that the state has more than upset the church and now we’re going to play a very long game of “I told you so, but you wouldn’t listen”.

I’ve met these church people, and I can tell you, you’re not going to find anyone who will stand up and say “we told you so”, but it’s quite clear.

What else I think is quite clear is that the city is held to ransom, this is a church that waited 10 years to get started, took 25 years to build it in the first place and will quite happily sit for another 25 years until a government comes to sense.

But What About All The Rich International Donors?!

If you think that rich donors from anywhere are coming to help, then you also believe in Santa and the tooth fairy.

The Christchurch Foundation spent $15,000 dollars last year alone on international travel looking for those donors and came up with a request in Council last month for $78,000 so they could keep going for another 3 months.

Reality, the donors have a massive choice of projects and they’re not showing up.

Right now the museum is short $40 million, the Arts Center hasn’t finished the Dux, Ferrymead Heritage Park is just about out of money, the City Mission is begging for food and found 59 more homeless on the streets in February, the stadium isn’t finished, the pool isn’t finished, the Court theatre is almost done, the hotels have hardly started, short stay accommodation and apartment builders are looking for sales, the list is long and I doubt I covered a fraction of it.

People with money have a place to put it.

Why do we care – it’s just fine as a church in a jail and does attract tourists to gork.

We should care because it is “a church in a jail”. It’s a broken building in the heart of our city surrounded by a fence that look like a jail. The outlook from the top floor of the public library is just sad.

As a city we’re wanting to share a message of uprising and hope, that our city is the place to live, invest and play and right now this building sends the wrong message.

What Does It Cost Us If We Just Leave It As It Is?

Two words, “economic slowdown”. In my view it’s a roadblock that’s slowing progress in the CBD housing market, but it’s also slowing down other growth.

It’s a unique building with a profound, and hard to measure economic benefit.

Yes, completed, it will add to the special amenity of the central city for people who live there. It’s part of the value that makes the millions of dollars of apartments have value.

It’s also part of the amenity that adds value to the commercial buildings around it, from hotels to office spaces.

For the past few years the CBD hasn’t been growing in value as much as the rest of the city and it’s that lack of growth that has caused the burden of rates to move from the CBD into other suburbs.

While $45 dollars a year might seem a lot to some, it’s only a fraction of the rate burden that has moved onto their homes as a result of the economic slowdown in values in the CBD.

It’s Simply Cheaper to Pay.

Understanding the rates argument, it’s easy for me to see that it’s simply cheaper for me to pay to finish this thing that see my rates bill rise because the center of our city simply sits unfinished.