People Before Profit to Vote Against Dublin City Council Budget for 2015 Dublin City Councillors will tonight be presented with the Citys budget for 2015 and the Capital Programme for 2015 - 2017. People Before Profit will be opposing this budget as it is premised on the Local Property Tax which is an unjust, regressive tax that should be abolished. Cllr Brid Smith states The Local Property Tax was forced on the people on the basis that it would fund local services such as parks, libraries and swimming pools. But this is not the case. The LPT is being used to replace central government funding and like the water charges is an extra taxation on ordinary people to fund the bank bail out. We will not be supporting this or any budget based on this unjust tax. I cannot understand how Sinn Fein would vote for a budget that is premised on the LPT since they gave a committment that this is a Red Line issue for them. In relation to the housing and homeless budget there is a complete lack of clarity from the DOE as to what level of funding will be granted to DCC. The extent of the housing crisis is too deep to adopt a budget that contains such vagaries in relation to housing and homelessness. People Before Profit will also argue for a higher and special rate on each of the companies based in the IFSC engaged in financial speculation. Even a small tax on this €2.7 trillion would yield significant revenue, far greater than that raised by the LPT and could be directed into housing and homelessness services. People Before Profit will support a reduction of 0.5% to the commercial rates for smaller businesses. But will argue for a scale of increases in the rates depending on the profits and size of the companies.Cllr John Lyons continued: This proposed budget is a huge disappointment as it represents a continutation of austerity and the old style of politics - funding cuts from central government and politically shoddy coalitions which lack the vision and courage required to bring real change. The people of Dublin sent a clear message to the political establishment back in Mays Local and European elections: exhausted from austerity, tired of the lies and duplicity of the mainstream political parties, people voted for real change by electing new and radical councillors in huge numbers.We have a responsbility and a duty to those people to fight for an alernative budget, a budget that funds the citys local services adequately, a budget that raises finance by targetting the profits of big business, a budget that targets all of the monies owed to the city in development levies and funds a massive housing and homelessness crisis that this city faces. That is why we in People Before Profit will be rejecting the budget this evening. For confirmation or further information contact Cllr Brid Smith 087 9090166
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 18:01:55 +0000
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