A council leader has accused the Scottish Government of highway robbery and threatened to take legal action in the row over local authority budgets.
Fife’s David Ross said a threat by Finance Secretary and Deputy First Minister John Swinney to take back millions of pounds for health, social care and education if council tax goes up was completely unreasonable.
Loss of the extra funding would add to the cutting of a £4.6million subsidy if Fife ends its council tax freeze.
It also follows news that the local authority will get £17m less than it expected, as it faces making £91m of savings over the next three years.
Mr Ross said: “These proposals are anything but fair it’s more like highway robbery.
“Not only has John Swinney cut Fife’s grant by £17m more than we were expecting and threatened us with a penalty of £4.6m if we put up the council tax, now he is threatening to take money for health and social care and education away from us as well.
“So we could now face a penalty of well over £10m if we choose to raise the council tax.
“I have asked the council’s chief executive to seek legal advice on whether we can challenge these latest proposals from the Scottish Government in the courts on the grounds that they are completely unreasonable.”
Fife councillors will consider putting up the tax for the first time in nine years.
An increase of 7.51% would bring in over £7m.
Following talks with local authority chiefs, Mr Swinney said: “This settlement is an opportunity to transform the provision of social care in Scotland with a £250m investment in integrating health and social care services helping to make our services fit for the challenges of the 21st Century.
“We recognise that there are pressures on budgets being felt across the whole of the public sector, as well as in households throughout Scotland.
“That’s why it is important to maintain the council tax freeze while we consider ways to replace it, as well as reimbursing local authorities to ensure they can continue to provide essential services.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “All councils will continue to receive their fair share of the 2016-17 final settlement, which we acknowledge is strong but challenging as a result of UK Government cuts to the central budget.
“The key to addressing this challenge is reform and local government is a key partner in our programme of reform and improving public services.
“Local government in Scotland starts from a healthy base compared to the position in England where councils face significant cash cuts to their funding.
“The Deputy First Minister has now written to council leaders with full details of the offer.”