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TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 27 January 2012 - £5 billion cost of council pensions - Bill bids for tax transparency - Misleading TUC report on union facility time - January's Pin-Up and Pinhead of the month - Grassroots - Best of the Blogs £5 billion cost of council pensions We revealed on Wednesday that the equivalent of £1 in every £5 of Council Tax is being spent covering the cost of council pensions. Last year employer (taxpayer) contributions to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) topped £5 billion. Gold-plated retirement deals have all but disappeared in the private sector, it simply isn’t sustainable to keep the system as it is. Incredibly our research revealed a huge increase in the number of local councillors enrolling themselves onto the LGPS. Not all council funding comes direct from Council Tax, although it is taxpayers who pick up the tab for nearly all of the rest too, in central government grants or business rates. That’s why it’s so important to find savings from contributions to the LGPS – any savings found could be passed back to residents in a Council Tax cut, for example. You can watch our Campaign Director Emma Boon (pictured) discuss the report on BBC South here. Our research includes a breakdown of the cost of the LGPS at every local authority in the country including the cost of the scheme per head. You can read the full report here. Bill bids for tax transparency Ipswich MP Ben Gummer introduced a Bill on Wednesday proposing that Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) should send every taxpayer a statement detailing how much tax they paid the previous year, how much they would pay during the current year and how that money would be spent. We strongly back his Statements of Taxation Bill, which would massively increase public awareness of how much we pay in tax - and how it is then spent. You can watch the debate about the bill here. This simple and cheap proposal would give taxpayers far more information as they seek to hold the Government to account over how it spends taxpayers’ hard-earned cash. We have long argued for greater transparency and accountability in the tax system, this is why we have argued that National Insurance and Income Tax should be combined. We will update you on the progress of this campaign as we seek greater clarity in taxation and spending. Misleading TUC report on union facility time We previously exposed that 2,840 full time equivalent public sector staff, paid for by taxpayers, were working for the unions instead of doing their real jobs. In response the TUC has attempted to extol the benefits of taxpayer funding of trade unions with their own report. Based on dodgy data and false assumptions, it took all of a few hours for our director Matthew Sinclair to comprehensively demolish the report. The TUC publication is a sign that the union bosses are increasingly worried that the campaign to end the back door funding of trade unions is gathering pace. January's Pin-Up and Pinhead of the Month Today we announced our first Pin-Up and Pinhead awards of 2012 and the TPA Pin-Up of the Month for January was none other than Labour Leader, Ed Miliband. We awarded him the gong for a series of statements over the last month which suggest he has come to terms with the realities of the current economic situation. Not only has he now accepted the public sector pay freeze, but he has also stated that he would not be able to reverse the cuts of the Coalition Government if he becomes Prime Minister after the next election. “Whoever governs after 2015 will have to find more savings,” he said, giving a clear indication that he will no longer oppose necessary cuts just for opposition’s sake. It was also an important sign that he now realises that the days of spending taxpayers’ money like it was going out of fashion are well and truly over. Meanwhile, our Pinhead of the Month for January is Cllr David Seaton, the Conservative councillor who is Cabinet Member for Resources on Peterborough City Council. Cllr Seaton is behind moves at his local authority to reject the Government funding which would allow for a freeze in Council Tax next year and to instead impose a 2.95 per cent increase in council tax for Peterborough residents. Even worse, his plans reportedly factor in a 2.95 per cent increase in Council Tax every year for the next five years. With most local authorities keen and willing to use the Government’s funding to freeze Council Tax – and some still finding ways of cutting it – residents in Peterborough have every right to feel dismayed that their civic leaders are currently intent on taking even more of their hard-earned cash next year. Grassroots Bristol Action Day Local activist Tim Newark is organising an Action Day for the TaxPayers’ Alliance in Bristol on Saturday 11 February. We will be gathering signatures for a petition asking for a cut in pay of the Chief Executive of Bristol City Council. According to the council's accounts, her total remuneration (including taxpayer funded pension contributions) is £222,133. We are calling for a reduction in the post's basic salary from £189,533 to £150,000. This is in line with the recently announced reduction in pay for Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Chief Executive by 15 per cent to £150,000—a victory for our petitioning carried out at the end of last year. Please let National Grassroots Coordinator, Andrew Allison know if you can attend, and help us build on our success in Bath. What: Bristol Action Day Where: Central Bristol (details to follow) When: 11.00 am, Saturday 11 February Richmondshire Action Day Richmondshire District Council is planning a 3 per cent rise in council tax. The full council will make its decision on 28 February. We will be meeting in Richmond, North Yorkshire, on Saturday 18 February to collect signatures for our petition calling on the council to abandon its tax hike which will hurt ordinary taxpayers and instead to freeze Council Tax for at least the next financial year. We need as many supporters out on the streets to collect as many signatures as possible. Please let National Grassroots Coordinator Andrew Allison know if you can join us in sending a clear message to the council leadership that increasing Council Tax is unacceptable to local residents. What: Richmondshire Action Day Where: Market Cross, Richmond, North Yorkshire When: 11.00 am, Saturday 18 February Best of the Blogs Burning our money: Non-Job of the week - Ever wondered what some people do in council communications departments? Burning our money: UNISON response to our council pensions report - Research Director John O'Connell tears apart UNISON's weak response to our council pension research paper Grassroots: Wiltshire's waste shame - Wiltshire Council finds ingenious ways of spending taxpayers' money on dealing with the problems caused by the Council Campaign: Child Support Agency credit card spending - We reveal the CSA's credit card spending on luxury hotels and fancy chocolates 2020 Tax Commission: Debating taxes with Nick Pearce at the IPPR - Following his appearance on Radio 4's PM programme Matthew Sinclair discusses tax levels