Gozo self-government dilemma

The yearning for Gozitan autonomy has waxed and waned over the years. The latest to rekindle the flame was Gozo Minister Anton Refalo, who called for a regional authority with the right to impose taxes. Kurt Sansone asks if this is feasible.
Gozo did have an elected regional authority for more than a decade, before it was abolished by the Labour government in power in 1973.
Set up in 1961, the Gozo Civic Council even had the power to impose taxes, although this right was never exercised.
This allowed Gozitans to have a direct say in the running of their island, and in 1971, the civic council even sought greater powers for itself in a request to George Borg Olivier's Cabinet.

Documented in the Cabinet minutes of April 1971, made public at the National Archives three years ago, the council's request was, however, put on the backburner by the Nationalist administration.
The country was by then heading for a general election in June, and Cabinet decided that the Gozo council's president had to submit a list "for further consideration" of services it wanted to administer.
The list never made it in time for the last Cabinet meetings before the election, and Cabinet papers for the...

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