Committees just won't face cuts
ON TUESDAY afternoon the Policy & Resources Committee made another bid to sell the concept of a goods and services tax.
Whether islanders think the committee is right or wrong, the approach has been refined each time, the offer slightly better, the arguments better-informed and less reliant on scary rhetoric.
However within 24 hours the committee let slip one of the biggest concerns that islanders might have about the prospect of GST. It revealed that the rest of the States just can’t keep themselves in check, and most committees are struggling to fit in with the savings demands made on them by P&R. All committees, except Health and Social Care, were asked to prepare budgets for 2024 on the basis that there would be no real terms growth in government spending. With just two or three exceptions, that hasn’t happened, P&R said.
Even more concerningly, committees have instead presented 'very strong cases’ for why they are exceptional and why savings are unachievable.
P&R talked of ‘a fundamental gap between the services and infrastructure the island wants and what we can pay for’.
The perception of the public’s demand for ‘services’ varies widely, but unless and until committees will take these cuts seriously, a meeting of minds on the future prospects of higher taxes looks further away than ever.