ROME — Silvio Berlusconi is vowing to scrap Italy’s property tax in his first Cabinet meeting if his coalition is elected, zeroing in on Italians’ deep distaste for the tax reimposed by Mario Monti’s government to boost public coffers.
The former prime minister outlined his latest ‘‘contract’’ with Italians on Friday as he pressed his comeback bid, promising a host of reforms, incentives, and measures to give relief to Italians suffering through a deep recession and youth unemployment at a record 37 percent.
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So now Italy, which already has had painful austerity placed upon them, will compound it by further diminishing their revenues, when they already have a significant tax avoidance problem and an unyielding debt. And Berlusconi thinks this will help the country's economy how? If this isn't the most obsequious pandering by an Italian politician yet, I don't know what is.
If he were shrewd, he would propose ending taxation of buildings but not land. Tax the landlord class !!