Deborah and I put out the following press release for tomorrow morning:
At the IW Budget Council meeting next week Island Labour councillors will propose a Council Tax increase for this year of 3% ......... 0.5% less than what is proposed by the ruling Conservative administration, and a full 2% below September's RPI on which State Pension increases are based.
The highlights of the Labour Budget amendment (attached), to be proposed by Labour budget spokesperson Cllr Geoff Lumley, are:
1. Reinstatement of £311,000 that the Tories plan to cut from services for people with learning disabilities;
2. Reinstatement of the £128,000 the Tories are planning to cut from the Youth Service;
3. Reinstatement of the £92,000 the Tories are planning to cut from School music lesson subsidies;
4. A £500,000 reduction in the overall efficiency target to help relieve pressure on jobs and a 'no compulsory redundancies' commitment;
5. A £25 increase in the annual Residents Car Park Permit (providing income of £150,000);
6. Cancellation of the expensive and largely unread 'One Island' Council publicity magazine, saving £59,000;
7. Abandonment of the £3/4 million Environment & Neighbourhood Officers scheme, replacing it with a £300k Community Wardens scheme;
8. Doubling the Tory proposals for a reduction in the Councillors Allowances scheme - to £100,000;
9. A £250,000 cutback in the Conservative Council's massively expanded £940,000 Communications operaton;
10. A targeted reduction by 10% in Children's Services Mainland Placements, realising £310,000;
11. Abandonment of Schools Reorganisation, saving £250,000 in extra costs.
Overall these measures will realise £968,000 towards reducing the Council Tax increase and the scale of general efficiencies required.
Labour has also decided that it will for the first time in this 4-year Council propose the use of Council Reserves, in recognition of the impact of the recession on local service delivery. However, rather than using £3.9m as the Tories are proposing, they will reduce this by £250K - to £3.65m - precisely the money saved from abandoning school reorganisation.
Cllr Lumley is likely to say, "Over the last three budgets this Conservative Council have benefited from well above average Government grant settlements and a settled national economy. Even the local Liberal Democrats acknowledge that. At such times sensible people with spare money put plenty aside for the next rainy day. However, this Council has squandered over £20 million of reserves and balances on outside consultants, petty vendettas with senior staff, and shoring up its budgetary incompetence. It now leaves us in the position where we need to use reserves in a limited way in recognition of the recession, though that will leave little room for manoevure the year after next."
He concluded, "For the third year running the Labour Group will have proposed a below inflation increase in Council Tax. The first time we got our own 2 votes, last year we got 5. Maybe this year a few more will come over to our way of thinking, at least in part. The message for June 2009 continues to be 'Island Labour councillors will never be spendthrifts with your money'."
4 comments:
Cut all council taxpayer contributions to promoting the tourist industry, which if it is viable should be able to take care of itself, and you could have a cut in Council Tax rather than a limit to the increase.
Because the government has done nothing to redress the inequities of this tax, it is still being paid by people who can't afford it.
I also wonder what the total cost of emparishment of areas which were doing quite well without parish councils has been; it all adds to the burden, and increases the bureaucracy.
Why should we accept that Council Tax has to rise with inflation? Our domestic expenditure tends to be cut by inflation. At the moment, the economy is going the other way, but when inflation starts to rise again we're likely to see ever steeper increases in Council Tax.
I welcome the direction of your budget proposals; I still think you could go further. You might be surprised by the support you'd get: I don't see why Labour should be always associated with high-spending town halls, so long as the basics are being taken care of. The support we continue to give to one of the most exploitative industries that exists, ie tourism, is a drain on our resources which fails to create an even half-way decent product.
Still: high marks for beginning to push the sacred cows in the direction of the slaughter-house...
Cut the PR spin machine, it's a waste of almost one million pounds a year! I find it obscene.
I'm afraid that I don't agree with cutting the tourism budget. Tourism is important to the Island and many people would be unemployed without it. Yes, I do agree that the industry should contribute more towards the promotion of tourism. However, slaughtering a few scared cows like the music service would be worthwhile. It should be paid for, as intended by the Government, out of the education funding that each school gets. Our Island schools are sitting millions of unspent funding.
Billy Pitt @4.49pm
Just how would you go about making the schools spend the government money on music? If the money isn't ringfenced then they can do what they like with it.
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