Consultation has a clear message
The Committee for Economic Development was potentially taking a gamble when it went out last week to the finance industry for a high-level consultation on a proposal to raise between £5-10m. a year from corporates through a new company levy.
Its letter doesn’t set out what it hoped to achieve, but the responses couldn’t be more clear. Do your job, and stop picking on us.
Moves to make extra tax on corporates rarely fails to get support in the States Assembly. It plays well with voters too. And most of it is non-specific so it’s almost like it isn’t happening to any firm in particular. ‘They’ can just pay more.
There are two major takeaways from this exercise, which inevitably lead to one conclusion.
One: Dear States, please stop making such major financial decisions with ‘bag of the fag packet’ workings. You must do your homework properly.
Two: As Giba puts it ‘we would welcome a plan (for funding and investment) that is cohesive, non-damaging to the island’s interests and capable of gaining sufficient support from both politicians and the community’. That is, the job you’ve been trying, and failing, to do for the past three years.
The conclusion: If this ‘income stream’ isn’t there, then surely the money’s not there to support the borrowing to pay for the Ozouets Campus.
And we’re back to square one, or worse.