The Irish Independent reports this morning that some county councils are so short of funds that they will impose levies of "up to €28,000" on all new houses. If this is the beginning of real local government with local fiscal authority, then I'm in favor of this. The money is supposed to be for infrastructural improvements in the counties.
However, benchmarking is one of the key causes of this problem as these mandatory pay increases have vacuumed up all the county councils' funds. Benchmarking has been a disaster, and the fact that every county council is obliged to pay these increases regardless of their ability to pay or whether rates of pay for teachers, civil servants, etc. in every county should be the same is ludicrous. Regional and local variations in standards of living are ignored.
Like the "bin charges", these issues should be handled locally. If the county council feels that taxes on property (which is what these levies are) are justified, then fine. But, we have to be able to vote for or against the members of that council on a regular basis. And, there can be no unelected officials – such as county managers – making these decisions.
