The Business Plan debate is likely to run for two weeks, with States Members having emerged from their two-month summer break straight into the major set-piece of the political year.
This year’s debate is also a test for the Council of Ministers, and their proposed approach to filling the £100m annual structural deficit in public finances being debated for the first time.
They plan to split the burden equally between cuts and new taxes, while an alternative proposal from the Corporate Services Scrutiny panel proposes £80m worth of cuts, with just £20m worth of new taxes.
Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur was expected to begin the Business Plan debate this morning with a defence of the ministerial position, which means £12m worth of cuts next year and £22m of new taxes being raised in 2011.
