With a new set of tax reforms being voted on in July, Express decided to look at 20 years of States accounts to see how our tax money is being spent.
Here are five fascinating facts we found out.
1. The States is really bad at sticking to its budget
Since 2017, the States has gone over budget every year but one, spending over £105m more than it set out to in that time.
Of the top five biggest departmental overspends in the last 20 years, four were on Health.
In the States’ defence, there were some extraordinary events over this time – such as the Covid pandemic.
2. The civil service really is growing
In 2006, running the States of Guernsey cost just over £22m – or 10.2% of its core budget – which includes the cost of the civil service, IT, and other aspects of the machinery of government.
By 2025, that figure had climbed to over £111m – about five times as much – representing 17.4% of all core taxpayer money.
We now spend more on Corporate and Governance – as it’s known in the accounts – than we do on Education.
We also have six times as many public sector employees costing more than £100,000 a year compared to 2016.
However this largely down to existing frontline workers – including senior doctors and teachers – tipping over the £100k threshold because of backdated pay awards and overtime to cover staff shortages.
3. Healthcare is outpacing Education
Back in 2006, Guernsey spent about 40% more on Healthcare (£71.1m) than it did on Education (£51.2m).
Today that has grown substantially to over 150% more.
While both figures have grown in absolute terms, Healthcare now makes up about 40% of the States overall budget (up from 28%), while Education has shrunk from 20% to under 15%.
4. We’re spending more on relocation subsidies than before, but it’s still not that much
Between 2018 and 2022, we spent between £1.4m and £2.5m a year helping people – like nurses and teachers – move to Guernsey through relocation grants and rent subsidies.
By 2024 that had risen to nearly £5m, which reflects increased recruitment as well as higher rents, because of the island’s housing crisis.
While Steve Williams, Guernsey’s Housing Minister, has previously admitted subsidies may be pushing up rents, they still make up a very small proportion of the States’ spending – and well under 1%.
5. The accounting goalposts keep moving
The States has published its accounts since 2006 online, great news for anyone who wants to look at trends over the last 20 years.
But, the problem is the States keeps on changing both the design of the accounts and its accounting rules.
In fact, in the last 20 years no two sets of accounts have used both the same design and accounting rules – and about two-thirds of the time there have been some quite major changes.
Of course, there are very valid reasons for most of these changes – such as setting up the States Trading Supervisory Board (STSB) to oversee key infrastructure and services like Guernsey Water, Guernsey Ports, and Aurigny.
However, other changes can look a bit more like an accounting sleight of hand – at least to the untrained eye.
For example, moving States pensions off the core accounts makes spending appear tens of millions of pounds lower than it would have under the 2006 accounting approach.
Similarly, moving some health grants from the Social Security budget to Healthcare makes “apples with apples” comparisons hard.
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You can read our full breakdown of how the States is spending your money exclusively in Express.
