Labour’s Budget Secrecy
On 26th Jan the Labour group used the council press office to issue a spin-filled press release about the council tax level – proposed at 0% (not including fire and police costs, which will probably bring it up to +.75%) – for the next year. They then waited until the absolute limit of the permitted time to tell opposition councillors how they intended to pay for it – council papers for the budget meeting next Wednesday arrived yesterday. Sixteen days later. That leaves opposition councillors just 6 or 7 days to scrutinise their budget and get it approved as legal by the council’s treasury officer.
Every year the opposition, both Lib Dem and Tory, raise the issue that Labour keep them in the dark and leave the release of budget information till the last minute.
Six days to properly scrutinise a 114 page budget of over £220 million is asking a lot. There’s a reason Labour do this – it’s because they don’t like being scrutinised and held to account. It’s because democracy in the form of transparency and accountability is not very high on Labour’s agenda. Keeping power is what motivates them.
I am heartily sick of Labour announcing things like the yearly budget through the press before they inform councillors (like those who sit on the Budget Scrutiny Committee). If they have enough information about their budget to crow about it in the press then they should be prepared to offer up their planned budget for full scrutiny at the same time. Anything less marks them as creatures of spin and obfuscation rather than accountable democrats.