The LGA response to the settlement consultation called for them to have extra flexibility of up to £10 on Band D properties. Shire district councils - which provide vital services like planning and waste and recycling collection - will see a lower core spending power increase next year of 5 per cent on average.Increasing council tax raises different amounts of money in different parts of the country, unrelated to need. The LGA has long highlighted that council tax rises – particularly the adult social care precept, are not the solution to the long-term pressures faced by councils, particularly in social care.We continue to make the case for multi-year settlements and for more long-term certainty around funding and budgets. While the LGA welcomes an overall increase in baseline funding for local authorities, are concerned that a significant proportion of the increase in core spending power for 2023/24 has been achieved through a combination of potentially one-off grants, ring-fenced funding, re-allocation of existing funding, and the assumption that local authorities will implement council tax increases.The final settlement confirms an increase in local government core spending power of 9.4 per cent, assuming that all councils will be increasing council tax to the maximum allowed without a referendum, which will help councils deal with inflationary and other cost pressures they face next year.Through commonsense accounting, taxpayers would learn that spending in Washington is not under control. Baseline budgeting is an issue that truly separates the deficit hawks from the budget chickens.Įliminating the inflated budget baseline will force Congress to justify and account for increased spending instead of hiding behind automatic increases. Baseline budgeting gives politicians an opportunity to deceive taxpayers by allowing them to claim that they are holding the line on spending while providing more services.īaseline budgeting seems like a technicality and should not be such a hotbed of contention, but every round of budget negotiations involves baseline budgeting with both sides of the aisle complaining that the other side is using the process to mask spending increases. Politicians often like to have it both ways. The federal government is the only place this absurd logic is employed. That is analogous to a person who expects to gain 100 pounds only gaining 75 pounds, and taking credit for losing 25 pounds. For example, if an agency's budget is projected to grow by $100 million, but only grows by $75 million, according to baseline budgeting, that agency sustained a $25 million cut.
Baseline, or current services, budgeting, therefore builds automatic, future spending increases into Congress's budgetary forecasts.īaseline budgeting tilts the budget process in favor of increased spending and taxes. The baseline includes automatic adjustments for inflation and anticipated increases in program participation. The Congressional Budget Office defines the baseline as a benchmark for measuring the budgetary effects of proposed changes in federal revenue or spending, with the assumption that current budgetary policies or current services are continued without change. In reality, baseline budgeting is one of the most sinister ways that politicians claim to cut spending when they are actually increasing spending. "Baseline budgeting" is one of those Washington terms that sounds very dry and boring.
0 kommentar(er)
