Council Tax rant

[PRC1964]

ATw, just read this.

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/Media/B...%202004-05.pdf

[WageSlave]

But what the FK they spend £1000 on? What kind of perverse logic makes them separate SMALLER amounts like police/firemen and hide the rest into OTHER column?

What does it go on? It goes on my consulting fee, my dear boy

[AtW]

No - I don't want to read this, I have already looked. What I want is to ALL people have chance to know that, know what £1000 go towards when they can see £30 for fire and £70 for police. Politicians can get away with this crap because technically they have it all on paper, but people are too busy to have a look, so council tax is being wrapped into nice police/fire/other envelope and every is happy, just like tank of fuel costs £50 and people don't know EXACTLY how much of THAT tank went to the Treasury. Not just abstract a lot, not overall amount in the budget - but how much THEY paid AT THAT TIME. Now this is powerful enough to make people think and vote accordinly. That's why Brown does not want to touch income tax because he knows that as soon as there is a piece of paper which clearly states what amount was taken in tax HE IS IN TROUBLE. Same with the councils.

In the USA they have good law requiring fuel receipts to state FULL amount of tax taken, not just VAT but any duties.

[WageSlave]

AtW, councils spent a lot of money on projects. If you want an indication of some of the stuff your council if wasting your money on, check out their IEG statement. It should be on version 4.5 now. You can also have a look at their CPA and BVPI ratings for an idea of how well they are doing.

[AtW]

It should be on version 4.5 now. You can also have a look at their CPA and BVPI ratings for an idea of how well they are doing.

I don't give a crap -- if they break down council tax into fire/police/other with other accounting for 90% then its totally wrong. Add 10 other top spending categories so that everyone can see what they paying for, and leave huge PDFs and budgets to the pen pushers.

[WageSlave]

leave huge PDFs and budgets to the pen pushers.

Suits me. Kerching!

[John Galt]

I actually went through our local councils accounts a couple of years ago when I was involved in a local compaign against the increases that year. Almost every area of expenditure had been reduced year on year - the only (and substantial) increase was for council workers pensions.

[Rebecca Loos]

surely also payouts following successful legal actions taken by people who damage their ankles when tripping over unmaintained pavements?
I thought that was one of the massive charges faced by council these days...