AS we race toward the setting of the new budget in April, Wiltshire County Council is still estimating a seven per cent rise in council tax but the figures point to it being much higher.

This week, the council published its budget document for members, which lays out the key issues; how much the council receives from the Government, how much it has to spend on services and the resulting increase in council tax needed to balance those amounts.

The county council is set to receive a 5.9 per cent increase in grant from the Government, equating to £12.8 million for 2004/5, but that is only a drop in the ocean when compared to expenditure.

If the council tax was to increase at seven per cent, the Band D council tax would rise by 6.98 per cent to £861.46.

But with extra funding to be found for schools in 2004/2005, council tax payers could be looking at a bigger hike. As well as the money earmarked for schools, the county council will also lose out on another £5.5 million this year because of a mechanism called 'floors and ceilings'.

Introduced last year, the 'floor' is a minimum level of guaranteed grant for some authorities, paid for by setting a 'ceiling' on other authorities' grants.

Wiltshire says the 'ceiling' imposed last year meant it lost out by £6 million and this meant the 10.8 per cent council tax increase in the current year, was about five per cent higher than it should have been.