The Treasury told Finance Minister Bill English when the budget was being worked out that a bid for increased education funding should follow the proper process, documents released today show.In a memo to Mr English in December – the budget was deli
The Treasury told Finance Minister Bill English when the budget was being worked out that a bid for increased education funding should follow the proper process, documents released today show.
In a memo to Mr English in December – the budget was delivered in May – the Treasury said Education Minister Anne Tolley wanted to take a paper to cabinet to discuss options for realising $50 million of savings from staffing entitlements, including an option not to realise those savings and to increase the budget allocation instead.
"Our view is that the cabinet paper should not proceed," the Treasury said. "Any attempt to seek additional revenue to increase baselines should be made within the Budget 2010 process, not via an ad hoc cabinet paper.
"You could allow the Minister of Education to include a bid within Budget 2010 for the staffing levels issue, accepting that this bid will not have the level of documentation required of other agencies... and that it could increase the level of funding by $50 million."
It said Mrs Tolley was seeking two concessions in the budget.
One was to allow some continuation of forecast changes in the education allocation -– rather than all pressures considered through the budget process – and separate cabinet consideration of a decision made in last year's budget about the $50 million savings.
"In the short term there is a need to ensure budgetary restraint -- the proposed concessions both increase the total amount of money provided to education and thus reduce the operating balance," the Treasury said.
"In the longer term we think that all forecast changes should be brought within the budget process to ensure ministers get to make all relevant trade-offs."
The memo was advice to Mr English ahead of a meeting with Mrs Tolley.
