16 August 2002
In the first of two press conferences to be held over the next ten days, the Scottish Socialist Party will announce the central plank of its election campaign for next year, which will be the abolition of the unfair council tax and its replacement with the income-based and redistributive Scottish Service Tax.
By focusing on the Scottish Service Tax, the SSP will ensure poverty, low incomes and wealth redistribution are firmly on the Scottish political agenda. More information and detail will be presented at Monday's Press Conference, but the SSP has worked on the proposal for over two years and is convinced it will secure massive support throughout Scotland.
Tommy Sheridan, SSP MSP and Convenor, said: "For far too long, the pensioners and low paid workers have had to pay more and more for less council services, while the well paid and wealthy pay buttons. It's time to change the record and make those who can afford it pay more, while improving the disposable income of our pensioners and low paid workers. Over 75% of Scots will benefit from abolishing the unfair council tax and replacing it with the income-based and redistributive Scottish Service Tax."
2/ 1ST PRESS CONFERENCE: MONDAY 19 AUGUST 11 A.M. COUNCILLORS' CORRIDOR, CITY CHAMBERS, GLASGOW
NOTE: This is the first of two planned press conferences which will outline the Scottish Socialist Party's core priorities to be pursued in the run-up to the May 1st, 2003 elections.
The next Press Conference will be in Edinburgh on Monday 26 August and will feature other big issues for the SSP, including a major policy initiative in relation to water and water charges.
PRESS NOTES:
A radical taxation system to improve the lives of more than 1.3 million Scots and increase local councils' income is launched today by the Scottish Socialist Party.
The flagship policy - the Scottish Service Tax - is aimed at taxing citizens on their ability to pay and bridging the gap between rich and poor.
The Scottish Socialist Party says the Scottish Service Tax would be established at an all-Scotland level and allocated to local authorities on the basis of need. It would replace the unfair Council Tax, which punishes the poor and rewards the rich.
3/ Tommy Sheridan said:
"The SSP is the only political party not to have wiped the issue of wealth redistribution from its agenda. The Scottish Service Tax is an imaginative plan to use the limited powers of the Scottish Parliament to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor."
Under the Council Tax, the resident of Beaufort Castle, a 24-bedroomed baronial pile valued at around £3 million, receives a Council Tax bill only three times that of a resident of Scaraway high-rise flats in Milton, Glasgow.
Tommy Sheridan said:
"Ann Gloag, the owner of Beaufort Castle is the richest woman in Scotland with a personal wealth estimated at £150 million. She pays just £1,878 in Council Tax.
Helena Duffy, a lone parent who earns £170 a week as an ancillary worker in Stobhill Hospital pays £760 in Council Tax for a two-bedroomed, 14th -floor high rise flat in Milton, Glasgow.
In effect, Ann Gloag pays less than two and a half times more than Helena Duffy, even though she earns at least 100 times more."
The Scottish Service Tax will effectively increase the top rate of tax on earnings above £90,000 from 40 per cent to 60 per cent - as it was under Thatcher up until 1988. At the other end of the spectrum, everyone whose income falls below £10,000 will be automatically exempt.
Many households where the main breadwinner earns £5 an hour or less could save up to £25 a week from the change.
NOTE: According to two recent System Three Polls, the Scottish Socialist Party is set to win eight per cent of the vote on the second ballot for Holyrood, just two points behind the Tory Party. This would mean at least six Scottish Socialist Party MSPs in the Scottish Parliament after May 2003.
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