Meeting of the Parliament 20 February 2018
The new tax powers were a chance to present a bold and radical budget. The SNP tax plans fall massively short of what is required, and it is the people of Scotland who will suffer—with a quarter of a million children living in poverty, performance in education on the slide as the economy continues to falter and an NHS crisis in which people struggle to get GP appointments. The SNP’s tax proposals should be rejected, because they fail to make the changes that will make a difference to people’s lives. Fundamentally, they fail on two points, in relation to both the money that they raise and the process that has been followed.
Mr Mackay frequently speaks about the scale of the challenges that we face through Tory austerity. However, the amount of money that is raised by the SNP’s tax plans falls way short. The Fraser of Allander Institute shows that even taking into account the stage 1 amendments, only £83 million in additional funding is available once business rate deductions have been included. That is all that is available. That is not progressive taxation; it is a massive shortfall.
The backdrop is the SNP voting, in seven budgets in a row, to penalise local government, resulting in cumulative cuts of £1.5 billion. This is not just about the figures; it is about the impact on local communities—jobs lost, libraries closed and community projects closed down, all as a result of SNP budget decisions. The rate resolution that we have before us does not address the scale of the problems faced in Scotland’s communities.
There are also some flaws in the process that Mr Mackay has followed. He has made great play of the behavioural aspects of taxation. When he submitted his tax proposals to the Scottish Fiscal Commission, they were downgraded by £56 million, which he accepted. We have not heard anything from him or from the Government on what went on at the challenge meetings that are part of the process and what representations he made in order to try to save that £56 million in order to include it in the budget.