Fresh bid for borrowing may revive ESC's plans
A senior member of Policy & Resources is canvassing opinion over a possible Budget amendment to reverse the States’ decision to de-fund the reorganisation of secondary and further education.
Earlier this week, P&R publicly committed to ‘accept the States’ position on capital funding’.
The senior committee said that all deputies ‘must accept that decision’ to go ahead with a scaled-down list of capital projects after they rejected a new goods and services tax and more borrowing.
But less than 24 hours later, P&R’s vice-president and treasury lead, Mark Helyar, wrote to another deputy, and copied in all States members, testing interest for another vote on Education’s stalled £130m. reorganisation plan during the 2024 Budget debate, which is scheduled to start on 7 November.
In the exchange, seen by the Guernsey Press, Deputy Helyar said that ‘many members’ failed to understand what they were voting on at the end of last week’s debate, in which they rejected P&R’s flagship tax, spending and borrowing plan for the second time this year.
‘Would you support option two from [P&R’s] Funding and Investment Plan, which would enable Education, Sport & Culture to be funded, to be put back before the States in the Budget?’ he asked.
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