Council f**king tax

[tinkerbellax]

So my council tax has been put up yet again. This is a bill that as a single parent, cripples me.

My bins now get emptied every couple of weeks.
My library has been closed
Today in my local paper it has been announced that extra funding for SEN children has been cut!

Wibu if I fight crime myself and empty my own fucking bin?

And yet the social care budget keeps getti f slashed... always money for the NHS though isn't there...

Putting every last tax into income tax and getting rid of all other taxes is a terrible idea. That would mean it would be a certain part of society that shouldered the burden of everything, or at they would be paying more than their fair share. Namely employees on middle and mid/high incomes. At least with council tax everyone takes the hit, the self employed that take dividends and do loads of tax avoidance schemes, people that don’t put everything through the books, those that have a large property due to inheritance etc, etc.

Why on earth did everyone in our household need a proper mailed letter stating that we weren't having elections this year? This has never happened before and this just when councils are squeezed the most. A tiny eg of ridiculous expenditure imo.

For those saying "work in the public sector" - I have, in local government, and have seen for myself how bent and incompetent a council can be. There were so many people who couldn't do their jobs it was unreal. The guy who was head of leisure ie earning a six figure sum went home at three o'clock every day. Three o'clock! He used to bollock his secretary if she arranged a two o'clock meeting for him because it meant he had to work "late". People were fiddling expenses, fiddling their hours worked, passing anything challenging down the line until it got shelved, there were dubious asset sales, councillors getting their streets designated pedestrian access only so they could park, thousands thrown at useless"initiatives" that, surprise surprise, councillors had financial stakes in, massive payroll anomalies that were never recovered - it was a fucking omnishambles.

Catspaws would you rather old people where left to rot or streets cleaned and rubbish collected every week? Those are the stark choices as there isn’t enough money to do both

"You’re very naive if you think the Tories are the only ones who will put up the council tax, despite empty promises (SNP....... cough......)"

The poster you're responding to was probably talking about the cut in funding to councils, which then forced them to raise taxes and cut services.

HaroldsSoCalledBluetits

So no different to the private sector then.

Very different. I've never worked anywhere else where senior executives went home in the middle of the day or where funds were blatantly misappropriated. Also, a big difference is that we're all paying those clowns. They live off the public purse, and the monies they were skimming were public monies.

How long ago did you work for a L.A.? Because belts have been tightened and audits more stringent these days

HaroldsSoCalledBluetits

strangely I can tell you the same stories of private firms, people going off in the middle of the day to play golf.
Money misappropriated for holidays, improvements to their homes.
Lets not forget the hiding of funds so that they don't have to pay for their children.
Dinners that involve lots of alcohol, hotel rooms, strippers and prostitutes.

Private companies are not the virtuous utopia that you claim that they are.

And we are paying for these clowns through the goods that we buy.

Whoa, who said anything about blameless utopia?

I couldn't give two shiny shits about private firms pissing their money up the wall. But when public bodies tasked with providing services waste money that I am legally required to give them every month ... damn right I'm bothered.

"Dinners that involve lots of alcohol, hotel rooms, strippers and prostitutes. "

Yes, I think fiddling of expenses is almost expected in many private companies.

HaroldsSoCalledBluetits

So the only real difference between private and public is that you don't give "two shiny shits* about private companies.