SCOTTISH Labour has launched its council election campaign by pledging to raise taxes to protect services it says are threatened by £327m of SNP cuts.
Deputy leader Alex Rowley yesterday published the party’s “Vision for Local Government”, which included plans to hike taxes on homes, incomes, vacant land and tourism.
The SNP and Tories accused Labour of trying to rehash plans which had already been rejected by voters in last year's Holyrood election.
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Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale was conspicuously absent from the launch, preferring to speak to a modern studies class at a nearby school instead.
Mr Rowley dismissed a suggestion she was avoiding the local campaign in case a poor result led to calls for her resignation.
Recent polls suggest Labour’s support has halved since the 2012 local elections, and the party could come third behind the Conservatives this May.
Mr Rowley, the former leader of Fife Council and head of Labour’s local campaign, said he wanted an "honest debate about what kind of public services we want", and if people wanted quality, that implied higher taxes to fund the required investment.
He said SNP finance secretary Derek Mackay should restore the 50p top rate of income tax for those earning over £150,000 and put 1p on the 20p basic rate to raise £500m.
He said only those earning over £21,000 a year would pay more.
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Labour also wanted to add more bands to council tax to make the maximum bill £3000, a move which would see the first revaluation of homes in Scotland since 1991.
In addition, Labour wanted councils to be able to levy a "tourist tax” of up to £2 per person per night in hotels to raise up to £70m.
The party also wanted local authorities to tax more than 10,000 hectares of vacant land at up to 4 per cent of its value, raising £75m.
Glasgow, Dundee and other areas of industrial decline would be the main beneficiaries.
All the tax changes would require Holyrood’s approval, but Mr Rowley said he hoped to influence the forthcoming budget process.
Asked what Labour would regard as success in May, he said the party would "fight to win every vote that we can", adding: "There are 32 local authorities, there will be 32 local campaigns led by local Labour councillors, Labour candidates and local Labour parties."
SNP local government convener Susan Aitken said: “These are the same plans that saw Labour roundly rejected by voters last May and it’s hard to see how Alex Rowley is going to breathe new life into a dead duck.”
Tory tourism spokesperson Rachel Hamilton called the tourist tax "suicidal" and said it could deter visitors to Scotland.
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She said: “If the visitors our economy desperately needs are forced to pay more, we risk them choosing to go to other nearby locations in the UK.
“The tourism industry is one of the fastest growing in Scotland, but Labour’s plan would place that growth and the associated jobs in jeopardy.
“This document shows again Labour’s only plan is to hit hardworking people in the pocket, at home and now even abroad.
“That approach was rejected by voters in the May’s Holyrood elections, and the party will find it similarly unpopular this May as well.”
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