York's council tax budgeting begins (From York Press)
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York's council tax budgeting begins
9:09am Thursday 17th December 2009 in
CITY leaders have started the battle to balance York’s books for next year – and are proposing another above-inflation council tax rise.
Officials at City of York Council say they are budgeting for a 2.9 per cent hike in the authority’s share of the tax next year.
Although higher than the current RPI inflation figure of 1.9 per cent, it is lower than the four per cent rise predicted last February in the council’s medium term financial forecast (MTFF), and council leader Andrew Waller said he would try to drive it down further.
He said: “We will be working with officers over the next two months to put pressure on that figure, because clearly people will be wanting to keep the council tax rise down next year.” He said the council was facing pressures in social care, children’s care and landfill tax.
Comments(11)
oldgoat
says...
9:35am Thu 17 Dec 09
Remember, outside of staff pay, most of what the council spends its money on comes from the private sector.
So, whose going to own up?
voiceoreason
says...
11:23am Thu 17 Dec 09
Is the number of adults requiring social care in anyway affected by inflation?
Is the number of children requiring care (especially after the Baby P) incident in any way affected by inflation?
Landfill Tax increased by 25% this year.
And before people start bleating on about Hungate etc. These are capital programmes and are not funded by Council Tax, so don't waste your time.
It's time the Press actually started a genuine discussion in how council's are funded and spend that money
AND LETS NOT FORGET THE GOVERNMENT SAID AN INCREASE IN GOVERNMENT FUNDING TO COUNCILS OF 4% WOULD MEAN COUNCIL TAX RISES COULD BE HELD AT 2% YORK RECIEVED 2.9% INCREASE NOT 4%
A taxpayer
says...
12:22pm Thu 17 Dec 09
jaycee
says...
1:11pm Thu 17 Dec 09
r,I think it only fair to inform the council tax payers of York as to how much/percentage has been set aside for pay rises or not .
meme
says...
1:16pm Thu 17 Dec 09
They do their best It may not be good enough but they do in the vast majority of cases try to get things right. Its not the Councillors I blame; more the staff on whose advice they rely.Councillors are normal people like you and I who rely on the advice of the professionals to tell them what and how something should be done and that advice has been inadequate Council staf who get it wrong including lawyers, planners and so called experts in estates department should pay the penalty and go. A lesser number of pen pushers who had lived in the real world with real world experience would do a far better job and there are plenty of those looking for jobs now so YCC get tough and boot out the deadwood and get peole in who know how things work and how to get value for money
TARGET.ONE
says...
3:08pm Thu 17 Dec 09
meme wrote:In most walks of life if you dont do your job correctly you either get sacked or forced out via redundnacy. Why should this shower be treated any different?
Lets have some moderation on here They do their best It may not be good enough but they do in the vast majority of cases try to get things right. Its not the Councillors I blame; more the staff on whose advice they rely.Councillors are normal people like you and I who rely on the advice of the professionals to tell them what and how something should be done and that advice has been inadequate Council staf who get it wrong including lawyers, planners and so called experts in estates department should pay the penalty and go. A lesser number of pen pushers who had lived in the real world with real world experience would do a far better job and there are plenty of those looking for jobs now so YCC get tough and boot out the deadwood and get peole in who know how things work and how to get value for money
There are councilors, directors and managers who are working on behalf of the taxpayer and the people of this city and they wasted millions. Not only should these people lose their jobs - some should be up for criminal charges.
LibDem
says...
3:25pm Thu 17 Dec 09
Any increase above that figure in Council Tax levels is due to 3 things:
1. A sharp increase in the number of children that the Courts require the Council to care for. The Council now has around 220 in its care at a cost of over £20,000 each per year
2. A continued increase in the number of older residents requiring care facilities.
3. Increases in Landfill Tax. Although the amount of waste being recycled in the City has increased dramatically over recent years, central government is introducing penal levels of tax on the amounts of waste that are still tipped.
All are national issues
mystic_genius
says...
4:43pm Thu 17 Dec 09
meme wrote:I agree with your sentiments, but think you're wrong.
Lets have some moderation on here They do their best It may not be good enough but they do in the vast majority of cases try to get things right. Its not the Councillors I blame; more the staff on whose advice they rely.Councillors are normal people like you and I who rely on the advice of the professionals to tell them what and how something should be done and that advice has been inadequate Council staf who get it wrong including lawyers, planners and so called experts in estates department should pay the penalty and go. A lesser number of pen pushers who had lived in the real world with real world experience would do a far better job and there are plenty of those looking for jobs now so YCC get tough and boot out the deadwood and get peole in who know how things work and how to get value for money
If the council staff are continually getting things wrong, then they should be re-trained/sacked or whatever.
If the councillors are normal people, why do they continue to take advice from (according to you) people who don't know what they are doing?
The management has to be to blame. If people aren't doing their jobs right, get people who can. if management aren't getting the info they need to make an informed decision, postpone the decision.
In every walk of life, the management should hold responsibility. The management are the people in charge of running the organisation, and if it isn't being run correctly, they need to change it - not just point the finger at someone else.
The deadwood you refer to are the councillors themselves. They have no knowledge of anything other than how much they can screw over the population of York. They need to get someone in there who knows about business. Who knows how to run large organisations. Not someone who fancies an extortionate wage, no responibility and the ability to point the finger at someone, anyone, when things don't go as they plan (if they do indeed plan anything at all).
ALD
says...
7:28pm Thu 17 Dec 09
Ben Guela
says...
4:17pm Fri 18 Dec 09
RPI=1.9%
York increase should MORE 1.9%!
End of that!
Get rid of this pathetic council and its useless officers NOW!
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HeworthSnapper says...
9:16am Thu 17 Dec 09