Tax battle
Another day, another offer to peg back the council tax.
The Liberal Democrats say they'd exempt low-income pensioners from paying the charge at all.
Hang on, say their critics. Do low-income pensioners pay at the moment? Don't they get credits to cover the bills?
According to the LibDems, some 20,000 Scottish pensioners earn less than £10,000 - but still face a partial council tax payment.
Under their plan, the Scottish government would pick up the tab at an estimated cost of £4m.
Second rate, say the Tories. A pale imitation. The Conservatives plan a £200 discount for every household where all the adult residents are pensioners.
In response, the LibDems say their plan targets help where it's most needed.
They rebut Tory claims that the system would be complex, saying councils already have to calculate benefit for individuals.
Notice a common theme from the sundry council tax policy offers?
As far as the major parties go, they're all about holding tax down: the talk is of freezes
and discounts.
Tax freeze
So you have the SNP saying that they have a proven record on constraining taxation, given the sustained freeze throughout their term in power.
They'd extend that - and Labour now say they'd match that.
As do the Tories who, unlike Labour, supported the freeze in the past parliament.
As do the LibDems, albeit more reluctantly given their philosophical adherence to local council choice.
The Greens dissent from this perspective.
They back local decision making by councils - and, ultimately, want to replace the council tax with land value taxation.
Council taxation has become central to this Holyrood election campaign - as evident from last night's STV leaders debate.
But let's try to think longer term for a second: a challenge, I know, during the frenzy of a political contest.
Sooner or later, during the next Holyrood term, one or both of two things must happen. Either the freeze ends and/or the council tax is reformed or replaced entirely.
Pegging increases
It is simply not sustainable for a property based tax to be frozen in time indefinitely.
Income tax revenue increases with rising living standards and wage inflation even though the rate may stay static. A frozen property tax - based on notional rather than actual valuations - stays frozen.
If the freeze ends, the various parties have various offers with regard to pegging the increases which can then be levied by councils.
The underlying problem with local taxation remains that it raises a small proportion of council expenditure.
That means that, because of gearing, a small increase in demand by councils leads to a large additional imposition upon council tax payers.
So does the system need reform? Labour looked long and hard - but concluded that the time was not propitious for change.
More, they have ruled out a revaluation for the next Parliament: memories presumably still fresh of the revaluation under the Tories in the 1980s which heralded the Poll Tax.
How about replacement then?
Stumbling block
LibDems favour the Local Income Tax. So do the SNP - although they baulked at introducing it in the last Parliament, in the light of opposition determination to thwart it.
Now, the SNP say that Local Income Tax will still be in their manifesto but, I believe, the timing of implementation will be linked to tax changes coming down the line from Westminster.
Not the income tax plans in the Scotland Bill but the proposal to devolve council tax benefit to Scotland and to local authorities.
If you remember, the absence of discretion over council tax was one of the key stumbling blocks to the introduction of LIT in the last Parliament.
The SNP manifesto, I believe, will argue that LIT can follow the successful transfer of council tax benefit.