Three weeks from now, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes will unveil the Scottish Government’s spending plans for the coming year.

There is no doubt that she faces a difficult task, with competing demands following years of under-investment and mismanagement by the SNP that has left our NHS, schools and public services struggling.

As with any budget, there will be a headline-grabbing rabbit pulled from the hat as part of the government’s carefully choreographed spin operation.

Sadly, it is unlikely to involve the local government settlement – a fairly dry collection of figures that on paper can appear confusing and even boring.

But, away from the pages of the budget document, that settlement has a very real impact in Scotland’s communities.

That’s why Cosla, the umbrella body for Scotland’s 32 councils, is rightly saying that local government can no longer be the “poor relation” that it has been in recent budgets.

For years, the SNP has slowly and systematically taken an axe to local authority finance – far and beyond any real-term cuts inflicted on the government by the Conservative Westminster government.

The situation is so severe that Cosla has calculated that more than £1.5 billion in extra funding is needed.

These relentless spending cuts must stop.

That is true for every community in Scotland, but it is even more important here in Glasgow.

We have suffered at the hands of egregious SNP cutbacks – and you can see the results in every part of the city.

Rubbish piling up on streets; rats thriving; libraries closed; sporting clubs shut; community facilities locked up.

These are all the direct impact of there being less money available for the city council to spend.

At this time of the year, it is the job of local authority leaders to make the case for their communities to the government.

It’s what my Labour colleagues in areas such as North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Inverclyde and Midlothian will be doing.

Of course, it’s always a bit easier to get heard if you belong to the same party as the government of the day, which is why it’s even more galling that SNP council leader Susan Aitken hasn’t lifted a finger to make the case for Glasgow.

She has repeatedly accepted the government’s cuts without question, putting party before city.

That’s why Glasgow deserves better.

Take the fiasco of the library closures – five community facilities that are particularly vital for the most vulnerable in our city, at the same time as Nicola Sturgeon boasts on social media about her expanding book collection at home.

This week, there was a partial admission of the mistakes made, with nearly £450,000 announced to help them re-open.

There was no apology, unsurprisingly, but the spin from Cllr Aitken and her SNP colleagues would have made Malcolm Tucker blush.

This funding is only for three months, so it doesn’t guarantee the future of these libraries beyond 31st of March next year, and – more importantly – it falls way short of the £1.25million-a-year needed for full re-opening.

The history books about Glasgow’s stewardship under the SNP will most certainly not be kind, and change is now very much overdue.

The people of Glasgow deserve an administration that will stand up for our city and its communities.