A WEEK tomorrow the Scottish Parliament election will be all over bar the voting, although many of us have already voted by post.

This is arguably the most important Scottish election to date. The Scottish Parliament has greater powers than ever before and many commentators claim it is now one of the most powerful devolved parliaments in the world. 

The defining issues of the election are undoubtedly tax and spend.

All parties have included a long list of spending promises in their manifestos. It is unclear where some will find the money to pay for them.

As the SNP are forecast to win another overall majority, it is only right their plans come under the closest scrutiny.

Nicola Sturgeon says her party will increase day-to-day spending on the NHS by £500m more than inflation by the end of the parliament, a total increase of almost £2bn.

They are planning to invest an additional £1.3bn in social care services over the same period. The SNP have also committed to protecting the police budget in real terms i.e. funding will increase in line with inflation. They haven’t put a figure on what this will cost.

These are just the big ticket items. There are many other smaller spending promises contained within their manifesto.

The question is how these promises will be funded; particularly when the block grant from Westminster is due to reduce in real terms over the next four years.

Analysis of each of the main parties’ income tax plans by the independent ‘think tank’ IPPR suggests that over the life of the parliament the SNP’s proposals will raise around £1.2bn.

This is insufficient to cover even their planned increase in spending on the NHS never mind their proposals for additional spending on social care, the police and a myriad of other things. In comparison, Labour’s tax plans will raise £3bn more than the SNP’s.

There is only one conclusion that can be drawn therefore: to meet their manifesto commitments the SNP will have to make savage cuts to other areas of government spending, most notably funding for local government services.

Recent research by the local government body COSLA revealed that during the current financial year 2016/17, councils across Scotland are planning to shed at least 7,000 jobs. Further significant jobs losses in subsequent years will be inevitable, including here in Inverclyde, if the SNP win on May 5.

To be fair to the SNP, they are proposing to spend an additional £750m on councils’ biggest service, education, over the life of the parliament.

The trouble is that £500m of this sum of will come from raising council tax on higher value properties, meaning this funding will not be available to councils to offset cuts in other key services. 

If this happens, it will be the first time a Scottish Government has went as far as telling councils how they should spend their own tax receipts. This is taking central control to a new level. 

The SNP manifesto also contains a commitment that by 2021 they will double the number of hours of free early years education and childcare to 30 hours a week for vulnerable two-year-olds and all three and four-year-olds.

There is no figure put on what this will cost and no details of how it will be funded. More cuts for other council services is the answer I suspect.
The truth is that the SNP are promising us the earth without the means to pay for it.

You simply can’t provide Scandinavian levels of public services on American levels of tax.