Small Council Tax increase to stop some cuts?

[Akrasia 10]

Sheffield's Green Party Councillors are proposing a citywide referendum on a small increase in Council Tax (less than 50p a week for most households) in order to save libraries and help elderly and vulnerable people. What do you think?

 

Anything less than an increase in line with inflation is effectively a tax cut, and I think it's crazy to be cutting council tax when the council is so short of income (especially year after year, which is what's happened). The only sense I can make of it is that the Labour councillors think that they can blame the coalition government for any pain caused by the cuts, so see electoral advantage in letting people suffer.

 

However, because any increase over 2% would require a referendum, which would cost money and might well be lost, I think that rather than go for an inflationary increase the council should settle for 2%. That would still be a small cut in council tax, but would let them reverse some cuts, and would protect their revenue stream for future years.

 

So I'd be strongly in favour of a 2% increase, preferably with the proceeds pledged to help to protect libraries and adult social care, and I think it should be implemented without a referendum.

[sheffbag 227]

Sheffield's Green Party Councillors are proposing a citywide referendum on a small increase in Council Tax (less than 50p a week for most households) in order to save libraries and help elderly and vulnerable people. What do you think?

 

 

We're just trying to find a way to protect old and vulnerable people and save libraries from massive government cuts to local authority funding.

 

Questions

If it raises £3.5M how do you propose its spent?

 

How much would go to libraries and what would the balance be spent on "to help elderly and vunerable people" its a vague statement, you must have some idea of how the funds would be channeled.

 

How do you propose any increase in income be ringfenced and then spent?

 

"protect the old and vunerable!" - who are the vunerable you speak of? childrens groups? low income families? adoption groups? disability support groups? ethnic minority support groups? Sexual equality support groups? Who gets priority?

 

 

Douglas

 

thanks for the reply but if you would like to go back to post #35 (please keep up) you will see that i am asking the Cllr who put forward the proposal who has failed to answer (unless of course you are Rob under a dual account) or a green party councillor yourself answering on his behalf.

 

So if you wish to be patronising in your response at least provide the answers to the questions asked

 

How much for libraries

how will it be ringfenced

How much would go to "adult social care" and are these groups identified in the proposal

How much will go to the 33000 homes and in what format would this be

 

if the comment figure of £3.5M is accurate then if you just provided just £100 of support to the 33K households that would use up £3.3M of the raised funds so the libraries and adult social care woudl get £100K each which isnt really a lot is it?

[geared 303]

They haven't spent the £1 million yet.

 

So spend it on the librarys instead of coming to the tax payer cap in hand looking for a hand-out???

 

One problem is that one person's disgraceful waste is another's good idea. Some people think spending money on libraries would be a waste, others do not. The council's job is to find a way through.

 

You will be seriously hard pressed to find a large number of people who think the 'fairness commission' is anything other than a complete load of tripe

 

And finally - some money will be wasted. No matter how much people try to give a good service and make sure money is used well - there will be things that don't work, things that go wrong. Sometimes people at the council make stupid decisions

 

No the problem is there are no repercussions for making such a howling mistake.

 

"Who cares if the project go's belly up, it's not like anyones neck is on the line over it"

 

If there are no repercussions then the same bunch of clowns will continue to make the same stupid mistakes over and over again.

[Cyclone 10]

Are the results of the 'fairness commission' available, and some explanation of what the £1 million of expenditure would be on?

[Malanimal 10]

If there are no repercussions then the same bunch of clowns will continue to make the same stupid mistakes over and over again.

 

In theory, the repercussions should be felt through the ballot box... it is councillors who have oversight of large expenditure.

 

You will be seriously hard pressed to find a large number of people who think the 'fairness commission' is anything other than a complete load of tripe

 

I thought it had potential - just wasn't done right and I've got no faith in where it might end up. However, £1 million will just keep the libraries going for one more year then the money is gone. Raising Council Tax means the money will be there to support the libraries as long as needed.

 

---------- Post added 26-02-2014 at 14:22 ----------

 

Are the results of the 'fairness commission' available, and some explanation of what the £1 million of expenditure would be on?

 

The report is on the Council's website. From what I have heard, there will be an announcement in March about what they are thinking of spending the money on.

[geared 303]

There's a fair few people on the commission - I assume they all get paid?? (even the two Union goon's on there??)

 

It looks like they've had quite a few meetings to thrash it out as well, I wonder how much of the original budget is actually left in the pot??

[biotechpete 10]

That includes the tax collected on behalf of the police and fire service. The 2.95% increase relates only to the Council part of that, which is £855.16 per year for a Band A household. A 2.95% increase is £25.23, or just under 50p a week.

 

 

 

Yup - 59% in 2011 - see here. There's quite a nice summary of the differences across the city in the Tale of Two Cities report by Danny Dorling...

 

Council tax Band A properties as a % of total (2007

 

Attercliffe 61.6%

Brightside 89.2%

Central 71.2%

Hallam 18.7%

Heeley 67.6%

Hillsborough 48.7%

.

 

Wow thanks for that. I stand corrected.

 

I can't believe there are so many in band A. We need to build loads of 'executive' homes then.

[Malanimal 10]

There's a fair few people on the commission - I assume they all get paid?? (even the two Union goon's on there??)

 

None of the commissioners got paid.

 

It looks like they've had quite a few meetings to thrash it out as well, I wonder how much of the original budget is actually left in the pot??

 

The people who gave evidence were paid expenses I'd imagine. The meetings were held in Council owned venues or at The Circle (Voluntary Action Sheffield). I've got a figure of £20k in my head for how much it all cost but don't know how reliable that is. Anways, the £1 million pot was in addition to any expense on the commission - so it should all be still there.

[mart 71]

I never thought I would quote anything from a Bush.

 

"Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open."

 

Laura Bush

 

If some well known person make a statement, does that mean the statement is correct?

 

If the libraries all close does that mean it will prevent children asking questions about the world? Is the internet closing too along with the schools they attend?

 

Let all the libraries close-who cares.

 

---------- Post added 26-02-2014 at 15:03 ----------

 

Why can you not collect the £31M unpaid council tax?

 

And don't tell me 'it's not that easy'

 

Because they want to take the easy route. A bit like Thatcher writing off the poll tax that the "same type" of people didn`t pay.

Edited February 26, 2014 by mart

[tankweb 10]

Close libraries, sell of the land and and use money for old folks. Printed media is dead,unlike our old folk, well not yet!

 

---------- Post added 26-02-2014 at 15:14 ----------

 

Plus why have a referendum which will costs over 100k - that's ridiculous - a waste - but expect nothing less from councilors - so watch out council tax payers yet more money to be wasted on councilors egos!

[Akrasia 10]

Close libraries, sell of the land and and use money for old folks. Printed media is dead,unlike our old folk, well not yet!

 

You've clearly never read a book to a small child.

[tankweb 10]

Yes, I have.

 

I use to be a Teaching Assistant - for over 8 - Key stage 1 and 2.

 

Can not remember or recall any visit to any library - as all of the schools had one within the school.

 

When was the last time you got a book from a library?