NEXT year's Isle of Man Budget will be 'overshadowed' by the massive fall in VAT revenue following the revision of the Customs sharing arrangement by the UK, MHKs have been warned.
And, outlining the timetable for the 2010 Budget, Treasury Minister Allan Bell said: 'Whatever is announced in February, the 2010 Budget will be just a first step along the road to rebalancing our budgets and considerable work remains in respect of future years if we are to make the significant savings that are required.'
Peter Karran (Lib Vannin, Onchan) suggested that reserves would be spent to 'sweeten up' the next general election.
Mr Bell replied: 'I've already given an absolute assurance we will not be taking the easy route and simply using reserves to fill the gap.'
The minister said the Budget document had to be completed by the end of January, ready to meet the deadline for the Tynwald sitting of February 16, when it would be presented.
Mr Bell said the Budget proposals were usually considered by the Council of Ministers (CoMin) at its last meeting in January and by Treasury two weeks earlier.
Departments would be submitting final budgets to Treasury on January 6 and CoMin would be agreeing targets for the departments in the next few days, he told the Keys.
Mr Bell said that there had been considerable consultation over the last few weeks that had 'shaped our thinking'.
But he rejected the suggestion from Mr Karran that the voluntary sector be consulted, the Minister saying he did not believe this to be 'of benefit'.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?Send your comments to newsviews@newsiom.co.imYOUR COMMENTSLeave the reserves alone! For what the MHK's get paid we cannot be expecting to much from them and I admire them all for putting their necks on the line. All MHK's should be proposing that the salary of an MHK be doubled with effect from after the next general election. This enable a higher calibre of candidates to put themselves forward to run the Island in it's most crucial time. The current basic salary of around £34,000 is that of a middle ranked civil servant and only slightly higher than the national average. So it seems bizarre that Civil Servants of Higher Executive Officer level and above are on higher salary than someone effectively making key decisions regarding the furture of the Island. With a higher basic slaray after the next general election we should be able to attract some quality candidates which would give the Island a stronger leadership in the next term and hence manage the deficit rather spend, spend spend!
STEVEDoes a population of around 80,000 really need all these local authorities and MHKs? Perhaps an ideal time to conduct a 'slimming' exercise across the entire government and civil service?
PAUL, DouglasThe UK has 647 for around 60 Million people, why does the Government think we need 39 Members for 70,000 people. Most of them are as useful as a chocolate fire guard, get rid of half of them at least. now there's a way to save money.
SMIf we paid them four times the salary we would get the same old crew in,no cutting the salary is the best,that might discourage people who just do it for the money,example,there was no pay years ago,and some fine men and women were in and done a better job than this lot,see how many would stand if there was no pay. I have been saying for years that 24 MHKs,and 9 MLCs were too many,also the Local Authorities need a big trim,Douglas Town Council needs dropping to one per ward. But as the old saying is again "Turkeys voting for an early Christmas ".
EORH