Limerick P.D. leads the way

page 17

PD LEADS THE WAY

IN LIMERICK

Joe Harrington was elected as a PD councillor to Limerick Corporation in June 1985 coming second in the four seat ward. One of the main issues on which Joe’s campaign was based was the need for a fighting working class response to Government austerity measures. This need was exposed quite sharply during the campaign of opposition to government imposed service charges on corporation and county councils throughout the 26 counties.

These charges, a form of double and back door taxation, have been the centre of controversy since they were introduced over three years ago, So widespread and successful has the opposition to their imposition been that a financial crisis now exists in nearly all local authorities in the South.

Of course the failure to collect these taxes has led to the familiar cry of ‘service charges or jobs must go" by the various councils. As part of our experience in tackling these questions we reproduce below a submission by Joe Harrington to the Finance Committee of Limerick Corporation on local govemment finance. Joe’s experience since his election to that body has been that, if Limerick is anything to judge by, local authorities act merely as rubber stamps in carrying out Government policy: the particular government policy of substituting bogus service charges for increased central taxation reverme is a matter which all anti-imperialist public representatives need to co-operate on, It is in this spirit that we reproduce Joe Harrington’s document.

Limerick People’s Democracy.

Submission on Local Authority Financing by Councillor Joe Harrington.

109, O'Malley Park. November lith 1985 The deep economic crisis forms the backdrop to the current discussions on methods of financing Local Government in freland, Jn this discussion People’s Democracy, as a socialist organisation, has three priorities Firstly, we totally oppose any further cutbacks in public services and employment Secondly, we oppose any attempts to increase the tax burden already borne by working clsss people And finally, we call for local services to be improved in line with the real needs of the people, especially those in the most disadvantaged areas, in consultation with the people of those areas themselves and their representa tive organisations, We outline these aims in order to establish that what is involved is not simpiy an abstract debate on different forms of Local Government but one which takes place in the context of an austerity offensive against working class people, the stated aim of which is increased profit margins at the expense of workers Given the present financial situation and, in particular, the national debt, it is clear that, having no intention of taxing big business, multinational corporations er the large farmers, the government will either implement massive cur backs in services and employment in the public sector as suggested recently by Dr. Fitzgerald or will attempt to tax the PAYE sector even more heavily through additional taxes, Indeed the present government may well even attempt both of those approaches. It is likely that the Lacal Authorities will become the focus for this battle and, indeed, the arguments that local services must be paid for, that public services must be self-financing to avoid possible redundancies, may be seen as part of a softening up process for future confrontations We do not accept the argument that Local Authorities must raise taxes or implement cutbacks The many arguments that ‘local government must be paid for’, that ‘there are no more free lunches’ and so on, ignore the fact that very well heeled sectors of Irish society are having a very good free hunch at the expense of hundreds of thousands of working class families up and down the country, Working class people cannot pay more and they will nat pay more, The fight against the Water Tax is proof positive of this.

The PAYE sector saw the imposition of charges clearly for what they were Le, another form of taxation in disguise Since 1979 @ campaign of hundreds of thousands of ordi nary people has been waged against unjust and inequitable taxation, The government's attempt to take fram householders what they lacked in courage to take from pay packets was weil and truly exposed in the statewide carmpaign against Service Charges In this overall context we have big reservations about the local property tax as proposed in the NESC report As socialists we have no principled objection to a tax on pro perty especially if such a tax is progressive and falls most heavily on large property holders. However, such a tax should be considered as a supplement to a tax reform which decisively shifts the tax burden on to the shoulders of those who can afford it... the big business sector, the multinationals, the big farmers and the rich Outside of such an overall reform it seems likely to us that a local property tax could be either another tax on workers or more likely a device for allowing the government to dr vest itself of its responsibility for providing a basic level of services throughout the country and to force Local Authorities to implement antt working class cuts or taxes The other main proposal presently under discussion is a system of direct biock grants from central government to the local authorities, with discretionary powers, Jn our view this proposal miffers from the disadvantage that it gives the Central Government sole power to determine the level of spending and, by the same token, the power to implement cutbacks by reducing the level of each year's grants.

. Joe Harrington{centre} following his election victory.

ft is our belief that local counetls should refuse to make any further cutbacks and should begin to work and plan for the extension of local services in consultation with local people in the trade unions, tenants and residents’ associations, unemployed groups, consumer groups etc There should be much more direct consultations between the Corporation and the various community groups in working out the needs of a particular area Where necess ary, Corporation officials pt aan be made available to help organisations draw up their own submissions, expect ally at Estimates time. In the case of Limerick City Council this would mean demanding that the government provide the money fo finance the demand for expansion of services that would inevitably result The social needs of many areas of the city require a massive infection of funds to make up for pears of neglect Even aretum to the level of local government financing of 1979 would mean a large scale restoration of services given the appalling level of cutbacks that have already taken Place due to the austerity drives of successive procapitalist governments We make this demand as the very minimum demand that this Local Authority should make on the government Index-linking local government Jinances, backdated to their 1979 level would still he an inadequate method of financing local authorities but even this would be an improvementon the situation we have in I985, To finance this the government must be pushed to tax the wealthy, Indeed, the fight for expansion of public services is closely linked to the fight for tax reform and job creation presently being conducted by the Trade Unions, If councillors want to represent the majority of their constituents - the PAYE worker and the jobless then they must become a key part in this campaign, At the end of the day, the successful financing of Local Authorities will depend on a thoroughgoing reform of the present lopsided taxation system, Without a radical averhaul of the system property tax and block grants can only mean either more taxes on working class people or quis in services and jobs Proposals 1) Limerick City Council rejects all further cuts in public services and employment, refuses to implement such cuts and calls upon the government to restore the level of funding to its 1979 level, index linked to take account of inflation. This level should be the minimum level of finance available for this and other local authorities 2) Limerick City Council undertakes a plan for the expansion of its services both to alleviate the hardships caused to working class people by the government's cut backs and the economic crisis and to provide new jobs 3) Limerick City Council supports the campaign of the (CTU on tax equity and job creation and demands that the burden of the taxation system be bome by the best offand the large corporations 4) Limerick City Couneil puts the needs of working class people and the deprived sectors of the community before book balancing exercises. Therefore any proposals on Property tax should be evaluated as part of an overall fax reform package, to be steeply progressive and to be implemented only with a govemment guarantee of mainfenance of funding to local authorities at their 1979 level Block grants with more discretion at jocal level as to how fhe money is spent is acceptahle only if a minimum level of financing based on the 1979 level is assured In the absence of such a guaranteed floor level Limerick City Council considers a system of block grants could become a charter for the implementation of cutbacks Cl. Joe Harrington