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Lex

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Id quite happily cough up a bit more council tax to help services while im in employment.

I don't think the freeze will be on offer come the election, pretty sure the committee on local taxation will have replied by then, and the parties will end up offering variations on local income taxes, Land value Taxes or the like.

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Some would argue the council tax freeze free prescription and free travel is a waste of public funds and could be used on other services and in the case of the council tax limits the local councils spending ability.

Care to remind us how that political argument worked out for your Labour goons in the election just three months ago?

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Point being, you used to actually make some decent points on here. .

No he didn't. He's always been a clueless moron.

What you actually mean here is that his unreconstructed w**k was previously much more in line with the Kool Aid types like you.

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I don't think the freeze will be on offer come the election, pretty sure the committee on local taxation will have replied by then, and the parties will end up offering variations on local income taxes, Land value Taxes or the like.

How long is is that the SNP have been promising to tackle this and haven't ?

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How long is is that the SNP have been promising to tackle this and haven't ?

All I'm saying is that the commission on local tax reform will have made it's report by then. If the SNP don't jump on it, then it clearly leaves a gap for Labour to exploit, and tactically I don't think the SNP are that stupid. Assuming there is some form of progressive, moderate change available, I'd expect the SNP to adopt that and go into Holyrood '16 promising to implement it.

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All I'm saying is that the commission on local tax reform will have made it's report by then. If the SNP don't jump on it, then it clearly leaves a gap for Labour to exploit, and tactically I don't think the SNP are that stupid. Assuming there is some form of progressive, moderate change available, I'd expect the SNP to adopt that and go into Holyrood '16 promising to implement it.

so the same situation as 2007 then?
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so the same situation as 2007 then?

Well, the power to re-evaluate the local tax rate has been there since '99, so... since then, really. Fact is that Scottish governments since devolution begun have shied away from doing something long term about fixing this. It seems unlikely that they will be able to ignore a cross party commission, at least not wholly. As I said previously, any recommendation that is in some way progressive could be seized by Labour if the SNP let it slip themselves, there is mounting pressure that 'something has to be done', the tactical situation around the constitution (which for the SNP is about trying to put blue water between how Scotland and the UK work) and the wider UK fiscal situation (which makes another CT freeze almost impossible without taking huge flak for pressurising local services) would point towards some change, even if it's just lifting the freeze - but I think we will see some change in how it is evaluated, if not a move to something like a LVT which I'd personally favour. And if the SNP don't it's manna to a Labour party who can seize on the ol' 'talk left act right' agenda and put forward their own progressive proposal.

So really, it's in no one's best interests, politically at least, to go into Holyrood 16 promising to leave CT as is.

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I was under the impression that the council tax freeze puts no more pressure on services since the shortfall is made up by the Scottish government.

Which gets harder to do if ScotGov get's it's budget cut. This is the first time a cross party commission will report on a replacement for the CT, looking at both the economic and bureaucratic impact of doing so. Once published it's up to the individual parties to respond to that, but I can't honestly see the SNP letting Labour flank them on the left over this issue, which is the space opened up by a further SNP freeze on the CT. Alongside the proposed devolution of the income tax it'd be interesting to see how that dovetails with any CT replacement as well. It's a genuine chance to create a more holistic, progressive tax system, if anyone is willing to give it a shot.

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I'd be ok with paying a little extra for council tax or it's equivalent tbh. I've been in Glasgow for 4 or 5 years now and I'd have expected that to have increased. TBH my household earns more than enough to pay extra - I have absolutely no idea why households over a certain amount haven't seen increases over the last few years.

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I have absolutely no idea why households over a certain amount haven't seen increases over the last few years.

Because then the government wouldn't be able to say it had frozen council tax. It'd have to qualify it. Not sure there's any more to it than that. They could raise band G by four pence and every paper in the country except the National would run it on the front page for a month.

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