MINISTERS want to tack extra spending worth almost £10m on to next year’s Business Plan, partly to cover the expected moves on free nursery care and anti-discrimination funding.
And they want to bring back a Vehicle Emission Duty on new cars, just a year after an annual emissions tax was overwhelmingly rejected. The amendments, formally announced today by Chief Minister Frank Walker, will each be debated individually by the States on 16 September – a month before the Senatorial and Constables’ elections.
By lodging the extra spending separately to the main proposition, the Council of Ministers have technically kept to the 3.5% spending increase stipulated by last year’s Business Plan – even though the final spending increase is likely to be much higher, at around 5.41%, if the States approve the extra measures.
But Senator Walker defended the late additions, and the reversals of previous decisions to cancel funding for discrimination, GST exemptions and free nursery care, by saying that ministers were reacting to changing circumstances. The extra spending also includes the lost income from the GST exemptions on food that ministers agreed to support in a U-turn last week, the 20% increase to the winter fuel allowance and the freeze on fuel duty.
Pictured: Education Minister Mike Vibert and Chief Minister Frank Walker
Article posted on 30th August, 2008 - 9.58am
2 Article Comments
Need I do more than quote Kevin Keen’s letter to the JEP earlier this year
“The reality is that the States seem to have as much chance of controlling their expenditure as getting Paris Hilton to give up partying. Why? In my opinion the reason is pretty much the same for both Miss Hilton and our government: they both have too much money”. Kevin Keen
Rollup for the party
Here we go again , let’s charge, good honest people, that do nothing but work hard. I say greed, greed , greed . They want £10m ,i wonder what difference it’s gonna make to peoples lives*** Do you see any progress where I am looking************************