Ways around recession in Spain

Visitors crossing the border from Spain into Gibraltar could be forced to pay a toll in the latest row over the disputed British territory.

The mayor of La Linea, the Spanish town bordering Gibraltar, is looking into introducing a tax on those crossing in an attempt to cash in on the large number of visitors to the peninsula known as The Rock.  Mayor Alejandra Sanchez of the right-wing Popular Party claims that the socialist government in Madrid has sacrificed the town of La Linea's interests, favouring Gibraltar, to ensure good relations with Britain.
He argues that "millions of visitors cross the town to get into the British colony each year", and that most of Gibraltar's income comes from visitors from Spain. "Meanwhile, we have 10,000 unemployed in La Linea. This truly intolerable situation cannot continue," he said.
He has ordered a study on the legality of charging vehicles and pedestrians using the border crossing a nominal fee to help swell town council finances. Spanish workers employed on the Rock would be exempt from the toll, he assured.
Critics of the mayor's proposal point out that La Linea already benefits hugely from neighbouring Gibraltar. Some 7,000 Spanish workers are registered as officially employed in the tiny territory and countless others provide services or supplies. Many of the 28,000 Gibraltarians own homes over the border in Spain because of a shortage of affordable housing on the Rock itself.
But the town hall of La Linea is said to be close to bankruptcy with recent demonstrations from council workers protesting that they had not been paid their wages. This border crossing charge, for visitors, not the Spanish workers, the Mayor sees as a way of increasing his towns income at the cost of hitting Gibraltar's economy.