Turkeys voting for Christmas [county politics]

The article is here - http://connachttribune.ie/council-faces-closure-rejection-budget-cuts-698/

Council faces closure over rejection of budget cuts

Galway County Councillors could vote themselves out of existence if they do not have a change of heart and pass the local authority’s annual budget by the end of this month.

The 39 members have been warned by Local Government Minister Eoghan Murphy that failure to pass their spending plan would force his hand to remove their statutory powers.

Last week saw all five area councils – Connemara, Loughrea, Tuam, Ballinasloe and Athenry-Oranmore – vote to reject their individual budgets, presented to them by senior Council officials.

The Municipal District members said that they were not willing to take “a haircut” to the tune of €1.45 million, which would impact on roads maintenance and the provision of community grants.

<snip, more if you click link, biko>

thesandeman

What's that got to do with Galway city?

TerrorFirmer

thesandeman wrote: »

What's that got to do with Galway city?

....County Hall is in Galway City?

Mrs OBumble

There are a number of joint services, including library and fire-service.

If the county council goes to the all, then the city council will have to sort out the latter, in particular, quickly.

Of course we all know that the newspaper article is just posturing and that there's no way in hell the councillors will vote themselves out of existence. They just want to prove to voters that the service levels aren't their fault.

dubhthach

That's not how local authorities work, it's only the elected council that would be dissolved, the day to day working of County Council would continue under the County Manager. As a result there would be no issue with library/fire-services, however the input of elected officials (as oppose to professional council staff) would be removed. Of course they could always vote to increase the LPT to maximum of +15% from base rate to add extra revenue.

TerrorFirmer

dubhthach wrote: »

Of course they could always vote to increase the LPT to maximum of +15% from base rate to add extra revenue.

They recently voted to decrease it though. That said though varying the rate of LPT is nowhere near enough to make a dent in the revenue shortfall.

TerrorFirmer

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

They recently voted to decrease it though. That said though varying the rate of LPT is nowhere near enough to make a dent in the revenue shortfall.

It would have covered it completely if they raised it to the max 15%

This is a case of having cake (reducing the LPT rate) and eating it (expecting central government to cover the shortfall due to said reduction)

They were all warned weeks ago that the council simply could not provide the same level of service if they were to reduce the LPT, they went ahead and did it anyway.

dubhthach

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

They recently voted to decrease it though. That said though varying the rate of LPT is nowhere near enough to make a dent in the revenue shortfall.

Well if you ask me the whole ability to vary LPT was typical political fudge. It should either be removed (and LPT rates increased) or rules put in place saying that a council can't reduce the LPT from base level if they are running a fiscal deficit.

Of course if we lived North of border we'd be paying 4-5x times the amount in 'Council tax', of course you at least get services from this (such as bins etc.). I'd take an LPT increase if the money was either (a) going to services and (b) reduction in central gov funding to local authorities was used to broaden tax bands (helping competitiveness against other EU states)

biko

City >> county

TerrorFirmer

Deleted User wrote: »

It would have covered it completely if they raised it to the max 15%

This is a case of having cake (reducing the LPT rate) and eating it (expecting central government to cover the shortfall due to said reduction)

They were all warned weeks ago that the council simply could not provide the same level of service if they were to reduce the LPT, they went ahead and did it anyway.

But we're talking about a budget that is decreasing year on year. We been hearing about the recovery of the economy for the last few years - Fine Gael's election pitch misfire was based on it - but funding has decreased steadily and Galway pays a huge amount of the LPT collected into the equalization fund.

So raising the LPT will plug a small paper deficit between one year and the next but it won't bring funding remotely in line with what the County Council actually needs.

It came up in the Dáil again recently. Per capita Galway's funding is something like 50% of Mayo CC for example. More on it here.

Councillors warned that they'll end up on the dole

http://connachttribune.ie/county-councillors-warned

Greaney

Rates on empty shops and enforcing their dereliction policy would add to the coffers. A minimum of 25 empty shops in Athenry @ €1k each, six major towns in the county ... it's not much but €200k is do-able.

If we only knew what the hell their dereliction policy was???
http://www.galway.ie/en/services/environment/environmentalenforcement/safetyofstructures/

In other countries, they put a lean on sites and buildings allowed slip into dereliction, especially if they're in build up areas because they get the use of services (paths, sewage, streetlighting etc.) because that's denying another the use of it!

Greaney

Greaney wrote: »

Rates on empty shops and enforcing their dereliction policy would add to the coffers. A minimum of 25 empty shops in Athenry @ €1k each, six major towns in the county ... it's not much but €200k is do-able.

If we only knew what the hell their dereliction policy was???
http://www.galway.ie/en/services/environment/environmentalenforcement/safetyofstructures/

In other countries, they put a lean on sites and buildings allowed slip into dereliction, especially if they're in build up areas because they get the use of services (paths, sewage, streetlighting etc.) because that's denying another the use of it!

Dereliction applies only to residential properties as far as I'm aware.

But you make a good point.

At the very least, rates should still be charged to the property owners

Greaney

Deleted User wrote: »

Dereliction applies only to residential properties as far as I'm aware.

But you make a good point.

At the very least, rates should still be charged to the property owners

D'ja think it would apply since a few of them had flats/living quarters overhead??

Galwayguy35

I don't think they have a clue how to spend the money they do get.

Greaney

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

I don't think they have a clue how to spend the money they do get.

I'm very involved in my local community etc. and I have to say, the grants from Galway Co. co. are tiny! We've also got to match fund on average 50% so it can be difficult to 'think big' in ones community. When I spend days filling out grant application forms, unsuccessfully, and then discover local government have money left over, I could weep:(