Budget talk provides no clarity
WE ARE expecting the Policy & Resources Committee to respond to the amendments laid for the Budget debate in the next couple of days.
And part of that may well be to comment on the prospect that the major proposal in the Budget – the extra 2p on income tax for two years – and Deputy Roffey’s returning GST-plus package, could actually sit together in a joint package.
Indeed, factually, even fiscally, they could.
Two years of income tax increases and the best part of an extra £30m. a year in the States coffers each year, while the ground is prepared for GST to come in and take over the heavy lifting.
But the word is that they won’t be combined.
Both sides appear to be concerned that their offer could be damaged by the other, and particularly when Deputy Roffey has been so critical of the tax proposals in the explanatory note to his amendment, calling them ‘recklessly dangerous to our economy’.
‘It is hard to fathom why P&R is putting forward yet another “short-term solution” which they fully admit is not the “decisive step needed to secure our public finances”,’ he said.
Apart from expecting a mixture of Budget cuts and pleas for more funding, it’s unclear what will ultimately be on the table in next week's debate and how it all will be received. There’s no clear picture emerging.