Hendon Hendon
Libs Dems offer only option to Tories’ “tax and no spend” budget
At this evening’s meeting of Barnet Council, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Cllr Wayne Casey will table the opposition’s only alternative to the Tory administration’s unprecedented 25% council tax hike.
Proposing an alternative rise of 13% Cllr Casey will say:
“Council tax is a hugely regressive tax, entirely unrelated to an individual’s ability to pay. It falls hardest on young working families and on thousands of pensioners across Barnet. It would have been irresponsible of the Liberal Democrats not to put forward an alternative to the Tory’s reckless budget proposals.”
Cllr Casey will blame the tax rise on the Labour Government for forcing year on year increases on local authorities by cutting grants and by adding new responsibilities without funding. Councillor Casey will also slam Ken Livingstone for adding yet another above inflation increase on the GLA element of the tax bill – an increase the Liberal Democrat GLA group also opposed.
Cllr Casey will point out, however, that:
“If the Tories fail to vote for the Liberal Democrat alternative budget and cut the council tax rise, the lion’s share of the blame for the rise will fall on themselves. The choice is their’s.”
Councillor Casey will slam Tory spin about an inherited £11m “Black Hole in the finances left by the outgoing Labour/Liberal Democrat administration.”
“This is an outrageous deceit. Since May the Tories have been wasting money like a drunken sailor on shore leave. If there had been a black hole they couldn’t have spent a quarter of a million pounds on an Assistant Chief Executive and his team.”
Cuts in the budget proposed by the Liberal Democrats – cuts verified as acceptable by the Borough Treasurer – would fall on “back-office” Barnet bureaucrats and not on front-line services and include deleting the post of Assistant Chief Executive and merging the posts of Chief Executive and Borough Treasurer or Borough Solicitor.
Cllr Casey will say:
“We have a Chief Executive, a Deputy Chief Executive and an Assistant Chief Executive. Clearly a case of too many chiefs.”
Cuts will also fall on uncommitted “contingent” programmes of work.
Cllr Casey will say:
“These so-called contingent budgets are little more than slush funds, pots into which the Tories can hide cash for spending closer to an election year. The Tories are proposing a unique phenomenon in public finance – a tax and no spend budget.”
Defending the Liberal Democrats’ proposal to use money from balances, Cllr Casey will point out that this proposal follows CIPFA (Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) best practice and has been passed by the Borough Treasurer with the caveat that “utilisation of balances will require robust action during the year to address any forecast overspend in service budgets.”
Cllr. Casey will say:
“Quite correct. I would expect nothing less.”
In conclusion Cllr Casey will say:
“The people of Barnet expect to have and deserve a Council that listens to local people, treats them with respect and creates a borough that we can all be proud of. But they also deserve a borough that they can actually afford to live in!”
On Labour’s failure to propose an alternative
“The Liberal Democrat Group found the officers helpful in producing our alternative budget and the process and timetable quite clear. Government Accounting is, however, a specialist area and the Liberal Democrat Group is fortunate in having Cllr Jeremy Davies, a public finance accountant, as part of the team.