In the final week of parliamentary business before Christmas, we saw the publication of the Scottish budget for the year ahead, and a cross party report on the future of local taxation. When MSPs begin the detailed scrutiny of these two documents, the connections between them should be given serious thought.

Although the Scottish Government will argue, and with some justification, that the financial situation is set by the UK Government, the fact remains that Scotland’s local councils are looking at the prospect of cuts for years to come, unless there’s a change of direction at Holyrood. The funds for schools, local roads, waste management, parks and libraries, social services and a host of other services have been going down for several years, and the cuts are only going to get deeper.

The grant from the Scottish Government is the biggest slice of councils’ income, but it’s not the whole of it. Your Council Tax goes into the pot too, but it was always a small proportion, and since it was frozen nearly a decade ago it has made up an even smaller share. In some other European countries this situation is reversed - people pay most of their taxes to the local level, and they tend to get more involved in local decision making. Other taxes might be paid at regional level, but only a small amount of the individual’s taxes go direct to central government. In many countries it simply wouldn’t be possible for a government minister to sit in an office in the capital city, remote from the decisions which affect local community life, and dictate how much tax the council could raise.

This doesn’t mean that decisions are always easy. Recessions or other financial problems will always cause serious problems for public services. But when people are really involved in their community’s decisions, and have the autonomy to make meaningful choices instead of implementing centrally decided cuts, they are far less likely to feel powerless and ignored.

This is where the report on local taxation comes in. Everyone agrees that the Council Tax, based on valuations over 20 years out of date, needs to go. Property wealth, land ownership, income, business profits and use of resources could all form part of the tax base. But unless the mix of taxes and the amount to be raised can be decided locally, by the people who rely on the services they’re paying for, we’ll still see cuts imposed against people’s will and priorities set by people who’re far from the community affected.

The challenge of replacing Council Tax should be seen as an opportunity to create something that’s been missing for far too long in Scotland - real local government.