Saturday, May 07, 2011

Halving our taxes

You recall that, following his replacement by Charo Bañuls as spokesperson for the PP,  Aurelia Murcia went on to form the Unión Popular Liberal y Centrista party which he says lies between the Conservatives and the Socialist, taking the best from each.

6987472In a press conference yesterday, Murcia outlined his parties policies for the forthcoming election which centre round the reduction of local taxes.

As, Murcia points out, the taxes that we pay in Bigastro are the highest for any municipality in the the area. He says that amount of local tax revenue for the town is 1,746,000 Euros meaning that the average for a Bigastro family is 730 Euros per year, a figure which he proposes to cut by half.

In order to achieve this fifty per cent reduction, without creating more debt for the town, Murcia proposes to cut the council workforce from 80 to 40 and at the same time privatise some of the town’s services.

Murcia goes on to promise that the provision of social services, protection of the environment and education would not be cut and that the fight against unemployment would be a key priority for his party.

Coming from a country where we used to pay twice if not three times as much in local taxes, the rates we pay here seem reasonable to we Brits. However, to Spaniards not used to a high level of local taxation, the promise of a reduction by 50% must be tempting.

I don’t suppose the 40 workers whose jobs are on the line see it that way though!

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