No tax rises for three years, says minister
Wednesday 22nd February 2012, 2:50PM GMT.
Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf
TAXES will not have to increase during the next three years for the States to tackle issues such as unemployment, housing and reforming the health service, the Treasury Minister said yesterday.
Speaking during a debate on the Strategic Plan document proposed by ministers, Senator Philip Ozouf moved to reassure Islanders that as long as the States meets its savings targets, lives within its means and plans for the future, there will be no need for taxes, including GST, to rise.
Instead, he said ministers would be looking at options such as borrowing money to invest in housing projects, introducing user-pays charges for some services and drawing on the Island’s ‘significant resources’ to fund their extensive to-do list.
However, the Senator, who previously went back on an election promise not to raise GST, admitted that the ‘big problem’ was going to be finding up to £300 million needed to fund a new hospital.
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some pigs have just flown over when I read this
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no tax increases for 3 years?, from the man who said GST WOULD NEVER GO ABOVE 3%
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we don’t TRUST YOU ANYMORE OZOUF.
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Watch my lips no new taxes! George HW Bush.
Historical precedent?
Oh and then there is the £250M for liquid waste that is not being mentioned as an unavoidable unknown!!
Perhaps there are things we know that you don’t know. To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld.
Politicians are all trustworthy the just have arthritis of the crossed fingers!
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Can we please get this tattooed on his forehead to act as a lasting reminder?
I dare say that this will come back to bite him at some point – but this time there is a caveat.
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No we’ll get increases in gas/electric/water/sewage and a variety of innovative back door taxes instead.
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stealth taxes.
what i find worrying is who the goverment will borrow from???
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Knowing this government……they’ll probably ask GREECE!!
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Senator Philip Ozouf moved to reassure Islanders that as long as the States meets its savings targets, lives within its means and plans for the future, there will be no need for taxes, including GST, to rise…
Who else reads this and comes to the conclusion that tax rises are a certainty
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I do!
But it’s parts of the next two paragraphs which concern me more –
“ministers would be looking at ………. and drawing on the Island’s ‘significant resources’ to fund their extensive to-do list.
However, the Senator, who previously went back on an election promise not to raise GST, admitted that the ‘big problem’ was going to be finding up to £300 million needed to fund a new hospital”.
This proves that they have absolutely no intention of curbing their spending – they’re just going to screw the money out of us, or the islands coffers, some other way.
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Sorry, I don’t trust our incompetant government to borrow money and I am sure most other people don’t either.
We have to live within our means otherwise we will end up like Greece.
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NO tax increases for 3 years…….HOWEVER we will be QUOTE …. introducing user-pays charges for some services…unquote…….
TO ME
USER PAYS IS A SLEATH FOR NEW TAXES….doe this man think we are just plain THICK!!!!!
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Says the guy who promised not to raise GST.
Expect tax rises soon enough.
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“as long as the States meets its savings targets, lives within its means and plans for the future” Ha ! Has he got a genie granting him 3 wishes ?!
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Oh dear, not many get out clauses with that statement.
Middle Jersey should prepare for more tax, higher social, bigger school fees, less university funding, more medical costs, higher parking charges, increased stamp duty and a postponed raise to GST or threshold exception.
Also watch out for back door demands for more income from JEC, JNWW and Parish rates.
Time to stock up on KY?
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I heard the same thing with GST.
He should put his job on the line if taxes do happen to raise due to to some unexpected circumstances.
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All is well with Jersey, you know you can trust Philip The Spin Ozouf.
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if Senator Ozouf stated publically that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, I would still want to see it for myself, you simply can’t believe a word this man says, it’s all just spin!
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So that looks like some borrowing for the island that never borrows.
User pays charges are just taxes under another name. I suspect there will be a sewage charge which most households will pay. Will low income households be exempt? That will make it even more tax like.
I take it ‘significant resources’ refers to various reserves that may be raided.
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Perhaps there will be an air tax? After all we all breathe. it could go down as a user pays charge.
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“As long as the States meets its savings targets” – never have, never will, gst up next year. Talk about a non committal cover your ass cop out.
Call it what you like, user pays/tax, any increase on household expenditure for government provided essential services is a tax.
So we have to fine £200 mill for a new sewarge plant and now this bombshell of £300 mill for a new hospital? £500 mill?
Theres lots of things id like but at this point in time when my income is down, expenses up, concern over job security, deep and deepening recession, I dont spend on anything apart form the essentials. Do we really need a £300 mill hospital now or in the near future?
We are now all seeing the real affects of uncontrolled immigration and the strain on infrastructure.
Find a way to tax businesses more, the tax burden placed on individuals to the benefit of business is already too much. The company i work for (a large employer) hasnt given pay rises, seen increased profits, and lower tax paid.
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Don’t forget the ludicrous welfare system based on babies for benefits …….. will soon be more per annum than the other expenditure.
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Ozouf,s planning his election campaign then is he, DON,T fall for it!
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I don’t listen to Ozouf. Even if he swore on the bible, I still wouldn’t believe him
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No tax rises for three years (except user pays charges on top of the taxes we already pay for running these operations).
Note: THREE years, is he starting his re-election campaign early?
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I don’t believe a word this man says – ever !
A hyperactive dreaming spin doctor.
The worrying thing is that he is charge of all our money.
Could his next mistake be the one that sinks the island ?
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What a nice man that Mr Ozouf is,thank you very much,Im glad someone cares.I hope he is trustworthy.?
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Truth or economical with the truth?
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The Promise:
There will be no need for taxes, including GST, to rise.
The Conditions:
- The States meets its savings targets
- The States lives within its means
- The States plans for the future
The Translation:
Because the States cannot meet its savings targets, live within its means or plan for the future, there will be a need for taxes, including GST, to rise.
Simples!
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Sorry – can’t respond falling about laughing too much!!
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This is the very person who said he WOULD NOT raise GST if he got back in. Lo and behold on re-election he raised GST by 66%. I don’t believe a word he says.
Anyway in 3 years time he won’t be in office anymore because I am sure by then the voters will be totally disillusioned with his policies and will have seen the light.
I shall really enjoy the next hustings and seeing some of the candidates speeches being torn to pieces.
So he says he won’t raise taxes but then says he will introduce a new raft of taxes to help raise funds. In case he is unaware the vast majority are being crippled by his failing fiscal policies. The toilet tax is a dead cert once the JNWW co. have put their “free” meters in for all their customers under the guise of reducing bills and caring for the environment.
I know where there are substancially
resources that aren’t being tapped sufficiently.
Maybe I missed something but when did the states assembly give the go ahead for a new hospital costing £300M upwards?
This person makes my blood boil.
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So what does he call the increase in Soc Sec contributions?
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Even Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask.
Can you trust his guy again?????
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Anyone can avoid tax increases if options such as borrowing and broadening user-pays charges are implemented.
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That can mean only one thing and that is we are being seriously overcharged presently……I wonder of this slippery tongued fellow really believes we believe his schpiel….self deluded or what.
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Good job! My ITIS has increased by 400% in 4 years and other than my mortgage interest my income has not changed. When the interest rates rise i’ll be looking to the states for housing as there is NO WAY I am going to be able meet the payments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I wouldn’t blame anyone for adopting that policy. Where is the incentive to be independent of the state? It is rapidly disappearing under a mountain of taxes.
One person told me that if they have to sell up, due to be crippled by taxes and an excessive cost of living, who are going travelling and living the goodlife before coming back to be looked after by the state when they have spent all their money.
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you will not be alone. i should imagine, there are many just bumping thru.
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How can you believe this person, has lied to us once and will do so again, He wants to get re elected so will borrow us up to the hilt then watch tax’s go up to pay off the debt.
Trust a rattle snake not to bite me before I will ever trust him and his kind in the SOJ.
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We could use his nose as the fabled bridge to France. So many loopholes in that statement, so what’s new?
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“the ‘big problem’ was going to be finding up to £300 million needed to fund a new hospital”
2 choices as I see it:
1) an extra 5p on GST for the next 4 years; or
2) legalise cannabis, grow it in Jersey, tax it to the rate it is currently available and flog it through a single States owned pharmacist. Then free all drug related crims in La Moye provided those who are not residentially qualified agree never to return. Savings – between £60 and 80m a year.
Your choice: pay for it yourself or pay for it by expropriating the profits of criminal gangs. No brainer I would say. Unfortunately, the States have no brains.
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Neat idea Donald, many birds with one stone:
1/ Grown in all the redundant greenhouses;
2/ Giving employment to the young;
3/ Filling all the soon to be vacated fulfillment warehouses;
4/ New markets for Jersey Post.
But is it legal? Does Jersey need to pass some new legislation to make it legal? Do you need help from my mates? Know what I mean?
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Ozouf is a terrible politician.
He’s one of the primary individuals who has created resentment and mistrust of the States.
What did he promise us on GST?
Now he’s promising even more unachievable tax freezes.
This guy either takes us for idiots, or he will say anything to hold on to power. Either way, everyone I speak to hates his guts with a passion
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Is it because he has now realised that they have been OVER taxing us for so long that he has now “found” several million quid to ensure no more hikes???
….or have they just discovered another bank account where all States “overspends” over the years have been swept into (meaning that the states have never REALLY overspent on any project – they just couldn’t explain where the excess money went) …. giving a nice, healthy balance for them to lavish on us all?
Nice dream….but I’ll wake up in a minute!
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P.S if he does intend curbing taxes as people are furious and have had about enough..then he is just warming us up for the BIG SELL OFF…asset strippers sell the family silver….we have a lot of money’s worth of property which greedy developers are salivating over..he’ll sell it to them…bearing in mind a lot of that belongs to the people and was donated to the people…the sneaky formation of the new waterfront quango to cover the whole islands assets is now the development company which does not ..people… have to go to the States for permission to sell anything and to whom THEY CHOOSE are you getting it yet….we have sleepwalked into signing away our future and our birthright and heritage…by a bunch of you know whats. unless someone with the balls to oppose it comes forward.where are you in our hour of need…?
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I quite like Philip
Only joking everyone!
That picture of him says everything you need to know about Ozouf……
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Quotes from Treasury vs facts?
3/11/2011 There are signs that Jersey’s economy is no longer in recession, according to the Treasury Minister.(Ozouf)
28/9/2011 Jersey’s economy shrank by five per cent last year…
Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf said… that the States had made a number of decisions – including introducing savings and tax rises – which had strengthened the economy.
21/9/2011 Jersey could be at the start of a ‘double dip’ recession, the latest retail figures suggest.
7/3/2011 The amount of tax being paid by Islanders has more than doubled during the last decade while the amount paid by businesses has more than halved.
5/2/2011 2008 121 sought help from the Citizens Advice Bureau about debt…
2009 risen to 185
2010 to 237.
28/10/2010 Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf has defended his controversial proposal to raise GST – less than two years after vowing that he would not increase the tax.
9/9/2010 The level of deposits held in local banks fell by six per cent in the three months to the end of June to £166.9 bn.
and the best till last:
11/11/2008 JERSEY is not heading towards recession, the Treasury Minister (Le Sueur) said today
Do you believe their forecasts now?
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When we get out of this recession cut the public sector by 25% and lower taxes on individuals or introduce a more progressive tax system. How patronising of this politician to say that they won’t be putting up taxes on us for three years!
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Not at all C S I even told hime pre-recession that things were due to go bad. I was met with guff about Jersey being well placed to weather any possible downturn if it were to happen!
All this would be funny if it wasn’t so serious. I predict a continual downward spiral with ever increasingly frantic reactions to each oncoming problem. He thinks Jersey can keep throwing taxpayers money at each oncoming problem, sorry but it is beyond that now. A chain of events has been set in play that will see a massive change in Jersey’s fortunes. Gone are the days of plenty and an easy life style for the vast majority. Obviously the top end being well insulated will continue pretty much unaffected by things.
Unfortunately the CoM has nailed its colours to the mast and are looking after big business leaving the workers to carry the can via increased taxation.
As for forecasts I never believe anything I get told or hear from the CoM. I view it as propaganda to appease the plebs, and that is my honest opinion.
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looking after big business leaving the workers to carry
But remember Mario, we all have the vote. Start energizing your Deputy and Senator now. Either Ozouf out; or your representative out!
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Now tax rises, just load of new taxes instead.
Multi millionaire Ozouf has no idea how middle jersey is suffering. He will on election day mind. Ozouf Out!!!!!
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The funny thing is my tax has dropped 90%.
Our income used to be middle earners and a decent chunk was paid to the States in income tax.
Since being made redundant, finding a job has been hard. I have worked of course as we get nothing through income support etc as we are home owners (How I laugh at being called that with my massive mortgage).
My tax has dropped by 90% compared to 2008/9/10
I wonder how much this is affecting things too, there must be plenty of others in out boat with recent events. Tax dept coffers must be dropping like a stone.
What are you going to do about that?
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