AN INTERESTING answer from Rhodri Morgan on how the Assembly should fund its programme in his final press briefing before retiring, writes Clive Betts from the Assembly press gallery.
Should the Assembly have tax-raising powers.
The sort of right that almost every democratic body possesses, right down to ecommunity councils.
As he so often does, Rhodri gave us a general tour around the landscape. Particularly when he doesn’t want to answer a question.
On the one hand, it was surely wrong for a body which spends £16bn a year to possess no powers to raise even a penny of that money.
On the other, the German Laender are generally similar to Wales. But they depend entirely on money from central government in Berlin.
Mr Morgan said that light may be shed on the entire issue when the position in Scotland is clarified over the next couple of years.
Mr Morgan said there was a “strong feeling” that, because Scotland possesses such strong powers, “it must be able to raise taxes”.
And of course that is the way that things are going for Edinburgh, with London even thinking of Scotland taking powers over half of the income tax sector.
German Lander do raise taxes! and there is such a thing as “Bavarian citizenship”.
Thanks for your reply. I merely reported what Rhodri said. At the time, I was pretty sure that the Laender were able to raise something … but how much ? Tourist taxes are often referred to in Continental countries, but that would amount to only 10pc or so on a particular sector of the economy.
And the German Lander get an automatic cut of income and other taxes, the proportion of which can only be changed with the consent of the Federal Council, the upper house of the German Parliament, which is made up of representatives of the Lander governments… so its not quite as simple as it may first appear.