BUDGET day is one of the busiest at Holyrood. Much of the media coverage and speculation focuses on party politics and interpersonal drama, but the substance of the decisions that our parliament will make in the days ahead are far more important than any of that.

On Wednesday, the Scottish Government will publish their draft tax and spending plans for 2025-26. MSPs will spend the following weeks scrutinising the minutiae of what the First Minister proposes. Critically, with the SNP now once again a minority government after ending the Bute House Agreement with the Scottish Greens, they will need at least one other party to help them pass their plans.

This will inevitably be a difficult Budget. Scotland is in a financial crisis, largely as a result of successive budget cuts made by the Tories and Labour in Westminster but which Holyrood must deal with the consequences of.

This will be the first Budget since the Greens left government and John Swinney took office. It will tell us a lot about his priorities and about the Scotland that he wants to build.

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The Greens took a constructive approach to previous Budgets, both in government and from opposition. We have repeated that this year, putting forward credible proposals to support people and planet.

We have proposed expanding universal free school meals to P6 and P7 and capping bus fares at £2, funded by measures like a mansion tax on the sale of million-pound homes and ending tax breaks for shooting estates.

The changes we have already made to income tax, whereby those on the highest incomes pay more and those on the lowest pay less, already deliver an additional £1.5 billion per year for public services. This has allowed us to deliver major Green policies such as free bus travel for everyone under 22, which has resulted in 730,000 young people making 140 million free journeys. That policy alone has been a huge relief to families struggling with the cost of living.

Many of the most important public services, like schools, social care and waste collection, are delivered by local councils. During our time in government, the Scottish Greens delivered new financial powers for councils, such as the visitor levy on overnight accommodation and doubling Council Tax on holiday homes. We have made clear that increasing the spending power of councils is a key condition to secure our support for the coming Budget. That means no repeat of the Council Tax freeze.

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Probably the single most important condition for Green support is repeating the record £4.7bn being spent on climate and nature this year. That was a huge Green achievement during our time in government and with the climate crisis rapidly worsening, there can be no scaling back that work.

One project delivered through that work is Scotland’s first-ever Nature Restoration Fund, which has supported dozens of fantastic projects all over our country – from building natural flood protections to safeguarding local species, restoring our waterways and improving our parks. These projects have created quality jobs across the country, particularly in rural communities.

If the SNP are to secure our support then they must be willing to move out of their comfort zone and compromise. Voters gave no party a majority in Parliament, they expect us to cooperate.

The SNP’s first big challenge will be to prove themselves worthy of our trust. We will not risk passing a Budget only for its green elements to be cut out weeks later. And we have reason to be sceptical.

After the Scottish Greens left government in April, the SNP immediately axed or reduced key green programmes like nature restoration, cycling infrastructure and the trial of free bus travel for asylum seekers. They also brought back the peak rail fares we had removed.

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With only days to go, the SNP face a big choice. I hope that they will work with parliament’s other pro-independence party to deliver a positive and progressive Budget. Together we can reduce the cost of living for households, tackle the climate emergency and continue building the case for Scotland’s future being in Scotland’s hands.

There is no doubt that all of this is made harder by a Labour Government in Westminster doubling down on Tory policies, and in some respects even going even further, such as cutting Winter Fuel Payments to pensioners.

Yet, Budgets remain the single most powerful tool that the Scottish Government has to tackle poverty and deliver for our planet.

Despite everything that has happened over the last year, I hope that the First Minister seizes the opportunity of a progressive majority in Parliament to deliver a Budget for people and planet, rather than lurching to the right and working with the pro-Union parties.

If John Swinney is prepared to make bold decisions, then the Scottish Greens are ready to work with him to build the fairer, greener Scotland we know is still possible.