There are very few people in local government who would claim that the council tax is an ideal way for people to help pay for local services.
But is it the “least worst” option? Or is there a better alternative?
The council tax typically accounts for less than a fifth of each council’s budget. Most comes from the Scottish government and business rates.
The council tax was introduced by John Major’s government to replace the community charge or poll tax – a flat rate charge where everyone who didn’t get a discount paid exactly the same, regardless of their income or assets.
The poll tax was hugely unpopular across Britain but was particularly controversial in Scotland, where it was introduced first.
Some would contend its unpopularity played a large part in the creation of the Scottish Parliament.
But if the words “hated” and “controversial” can be applied by critics to both the community charge and council tax, what can be said about the tax which they replaced?
Domestic rates were unpopular too, and a controversial revaluation in the mid-80s led to the poll tax being introduced to replace them.
While the poll tax was always contentious and came to be seen as a huge political miscalculation by Margaret Thatcher’s government, at the time some of her supporters genuinely believed they were introducing a better system which had merits.
So can the council tax be replaced now?
Around a decade ago, the Scottish government established a commission to examine alternatives.
It set out details of a few – examining their pros and cons – but did not recommend a particular option.
A local income tax, for example, might be seen as the fairest system as it is directly linked to someone’s ability to pay.
But a different level of income tax in each council area could be an administrative nightmare.
Meanwhile, raising income tax by the same amount across Scotland to help finance councils would break the link between local voters and the services they help pay for.
The problem is that almost every way of raising money for councils has pros and cons. Is it fair? Can it be simply understood by the public? Is it practical? And any change would almost certainly mean that some people would be better or worse off to begin with.
Unless broad support emerges for one of the alternative options, replacing the council tax completely would seem highly unlikely.
The last thing any politician wants to do is repeat the mistake made by the Conservatives in the late 80s and replace one disliked tax with one which is even more unpopular.
