Deputy defends call to raise extra £63m. in tax increase
POLICY & RESOURCES are 'too far from the coalface' to see that public services will falter without investment and transformation, the deputy behind a call for higher medium-term taxation has said.
Deputies Emilie Yerby and Rob Prow have laid an amendment to the States' Medium Term Financial Plan, proposing that an extra £63m. should be collected in tax over four years.
Policy & Resources president Deputy St Pier, whose committee want to take an extra £35m. in tax between 2018 and 2021, slammed the proposals as 'totally unwarranted and lacking any supporting evidence'.
However, Deputy Yerby said the amendment was 'an honest recognition of what it will cost to provide public services' while sustainably transforming these services.
'P&R say that "there is no supporting evidence" for this. That suggests they have not read the six committee policy plans that are attached to their Medium Term Financial Plan,' she said.
'Between us, Deputy Prow and I sit on half – Health and Social Care, Employment and Social Security and Home Affairs – of the six principal committees.
'We are much closer to the coalface than P&R and we recognise the very real challenges that exist. If we want to transform services so that they are effective and affordable in the long term, committees have got to be able to reinvest the savings that they make now, into areas which are currently underfunded.'
