Italy Revamps Austerity Plan for a Third Time

Posted August 30th, 2011 at 2:55 am (UTC-5)
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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has agreed to revamp the current $65 billion austerity plan. This is the third attempt in the last several weeks to balance the Italian budget.

The new plan announced Monday includes a crackdown on avoiding property taxes, and delays retirement for some Italians. Few details were announced on how the latest austerity plan would work.

The plan backtracks on some earlier proposals that cut funding to local governments, but keeps others in place. The plan also drops a proposed special tax on high earners.

Parliament returns from vacation next week and will start to examine the latest proposal. The Italian Senate is scheduled to vote on the latest austerity plan by mid-September.

Prime Minister Berlusconi's office said the new changes must be approved by Italian lawmakers within the original timeframe and achieve the same level of savings as the original plan. Italy is working on plans to balance the budget by 2013.