John MacDonald: Don't give me a tax cut. Do this instead.

I thought the tax cuts we got after the last election were a complete waste of time.

And I suspect that, by now, most people feel the same.

Which is why I am in no way excited about this talk from National about possibly further cuts. At some stage.

When the party released its fiscal plan for the election yesterday, finance spokesperson Nicola Willis opened the door a little bit. Hinting at further tax cuts once the books are back in surplus.

Saying: “National is the party of low tax”. Adding that the tax changes after the last election were the first in 14 years.

But she said first priority is getting the Government books back into the black so future generations aren’t lumbered with more debt.

The thing is, though, what would you rather?

Would you rather get another miserly tax cut? Or would you like to see the money spent differently or, even, more wisely?

I’m in the “spend the money more wisely” camp. So I don’t give two hoots about tax cuts. But I do give two hoots about some of the way my tax dollars are spent.

I’ve got five examples. In no particular order.

Money blown on infrastructure projects that go nowhere. Labour excelled on that front with the $50 million it poured into the Auckland Harbour Bridge bike lane project. All that money and nothing to show for it.

Untargetted government subsidies. Example: the fuel subsidies. We know they’re going to people who don’t actually need them.

MP perks. I think we can agree that they’re way too generous. For example, being paid $1,000-a-week to stay in Wellington at a property they own themselves.

How much of our money goes into paying off government debt. We have no choice on that front - we have to pay it off, with interest. The interest alone is $27 million-a-day.

And, this is small-fry compared to the others, but it still shows how Wellington throws taxpayer money around. It’s the $150,000 blown on the Government’s farcical road cone hotline. It achieved nothing. Money down the drain.

So, for me, less of the wasteful spending is far more important than giving me a tax cut.

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