Council tax bills could be set to rocket when they are set next year.

If reports turn out to be true, then the local authority tax is going to go up by as much as 22% for the highest band.

In Glasgow this year Council Tax increased by 5%.

For years there was a freeze and then a 3% cap on Council Tax rises imposed by the Scottish Government from 2007 until 2021 but in Glasgow, it had been in place longer as the then Labour council put a freeze on bills the year before.

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For the last decade or so council budgets have been hammered by cuts with more than half a billion pounds wiped from the councils spending power.

In Glasgow, those in charge have been looking at different ways of boosting the city’s income.

The council leader, Susan Aitken wants to see money allocated to councils on the basis of which has the most need in terms of deprivation.

Her idea would see places like Glasgow, Dundee and West Dunbartonshire get more money from the Scottish Government because it has more poverty and places like East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire less because they do not have poverty on the same scale.

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Other ideas have included a tourist tax where visitors to the city are charged for overnight stays to help pay for services.

Many cities abroad have this. It is either added to your bill in a hotel or your accommodation provider collects it, and it gets paid to the local authority.

A congestion charge for motorists has been put forward by the City Treasurer, Richard Bell, as another method of raising cash.

It would only apply to residents from other areas and would not be payable by the city’s residents.

The above ideas would see Glasgow get more money and it wouldn’t be coming from the city’s residents.

Council Tax only brings in a small amount of cash compared with the money from the Scottish Government.

It could be argued increasing the grant from Holyrood would be the most effective way of boosting the city’s income.

What is clear is that more money is needed.

Jobs are going, if not in compulsory redundancies, then people who leave are not being replaced and the salaries are banked as savings.

It means there are fewer people available to do an increased workload, which is mostly as a result of the higher levels of deprivation mentioned earlier.

It also means fewer jobs are available for local people as the council, which is still one of the biggest employers in the city, shrinks its workforce.

For a long time there has been a debate about how councils should be funded.

The SNP had promised to scrap the council tax when it first came to power.

Now, 16 years later, the pledge has long since been dropped.

A local income tax had been proposed but many people feel a tax based on the size and value of property is still worthwhile.

In previous increases, people in higher bands had a bigger increase, to protect those in lower bands, who tend to be in lower income brackets.

The idea for a big rise would see this repeated with Band E going up by 7.5%, rising to 22.5% for Band H.

It would see a rise of around £125 to more than £750 for the highest band.

Whatever the solution to council funding is, one thing is absolutely clear.

The services provided by our council workers, in health, social care, education and cleansing, in roads, community work and arts and culture are vital for a city like Glasgow to thrive.

In cutting the budgets for councils these services have been undervalued and the importance of them has been undermined.

Workers in all of the council functions have highlighted the difficulty they face trying to maintain a viable level of service in the face of cuts.

More money must be found to not only protect these services but reverse the damage done over recent years.

Whether this can be passed on to residents via their council tax, when they are already grappling with the increased cost of fuel, rent rises, mortgage interest rate hikes and rocketing food and petrol costs, will be a decision that councillors in the city will have to take when the budget next comes up for discussion.