Scrap Council Tax?

That sounds 'controversial' (imagine me doing that annoying index finger gesture). However, now would be a fantastic time to rethink the existing council tax system.

Welsh councils have just been given a below inflation cash settlement from the government. While this doesn't sound to bad at first it doesn't take a genius to work out that, since councils are paying more for stuff like the rest of us, they will have to cut spending and jobs to make ends meet. Or, just as unpopular and unfair, raise council taxes. In fact council tax increases are abysmal- as it is the hardest pressed (usually the hardest working in my experience) who notice council tax increases the most. Cutting spending is equally dire. Less money for schools, for police, for refuse collection, leisure facilities, and all the other really important things councils pay for.

When governments cut council budgets they effectively pass the buck for spending cuts onto elected bodies that are not central government- thus spreading the blame when Primary schools need to close, or the lollypop lady gets the sack.

Spare a thought everyone for poor Blaenau Gwent- who this year voted out the New Labour council, and have been handed a measly 1.7% increase in spending, which is like a 3.8% cut (I am not saying these two events are connected or that the outgoing Labour council acted out 'slash and burn' tactics. I am not saying the same thing happened in Newport either. These are just scurrilous rumours.)

With greater powers for the Welsh assembly, and a Plaid government heading it up- we could see off this situation by introducing a local income tax. Plaid has long argued for this. Like conventional income tax local income tax would ensure the rich pay 'slightly' more for local services and the harder pressed less. The current system, based on anachronistic valuations of your house, is not really fair, and it leaves no room for equitable targeted increases directed at those most able to pay. In this way negative effects of a recession in Wales could be mitigated with Plaid in power.

So scrap council tax- of course not- rethink it- yes.