Anatomy of a disparate removal: Hacienda plans to forgive 2,341 euros to each manchego and 1,233 euros to each Madrid

“Delivery made to hammering”, “insufficient patch” … The government’s proposal for the assumption by the State of 83,252 million euros of debt of the Autonomous Communities has not had a particularly enthusiastic reception by the financing experts Autonomic. They question the unique distribution criteria used, which The justified debt has not been taken into account For the galloping infinance suffered by some very identified autonomies, singularly the Valencian Community and Murcia, and the decision not to impose any extra fiscal conditionality to the autonomies for this benefit.

«The effects on incentives to fiscal discipline can be very serious», Adventure Ángel de la Fuente, the one who was coordinator of the group of experts for the reform of regional financing and director of Fedea, the Think Tank that has analyzed the potential effects of a debt condonation. “They are telling the Autonomous Communities that the Government has the obligation to protect them 100% against any ‘shock'”.

Actually, not everyone has protected them the same. Debt figures condemned per inhabitant show a gap of more than 1,000 euros Among the virtual debt that each Castilian-Manchego would have forgiven, 2,341 euros per head; and the one that the Government proposes to forgive the Madrid, just 1,233 euros.

More than by the figure, which is still the statistical balance of a global operation that is not going to be paid with a citizen spill; The comparison is relevant for territorial disparity in this kind of Mutualization of accumulated autonomous debt. The comparison between Catalonia and Madrid is significant, two autonomies with a powerful fiscal capacity, which are net contributors to intertritorial solidarity and that receive from the system some resources similar to the average. However, while the one agreed between the Treasury and ERC supposes the forgive only reason to have accumulated less debt after the great recession and not having uploaded the IRPF to improve its fiscal resources.

A gap that is similar when the reference of debt per adjusted inhabitant is taken (the criteria that are for the distribution of the Funds of the Autonomous Financing), which convents 2,220 euros for Catalan and only 1,369 euros per Madrid. «Madrid should have a quite similar to that of Catalonia and stays around half, ”explains the source.

The Valencian case

In the midst of an agitated academic and social debate around the government’s commitment to provide singular financing to Catalonia and the intention of the nationalists of drastically cut the Catalan contribution to solidarityone of the data that attracts attention is that the overall amount of debt to Catalonia, of 17,104 million euros, corresponds almost to the point with the net contribution that Catalonia has made to the fund that guarantees the equitable provision of services public in all autonomous communities from the entry into force of the current autonomous financing model, which added 16,886 million euros until 2022.

And there is the case of the Valencian Community. The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, insisted on Tuesday that it is one of the communities most benefited by debt assumption On the part of the State since according to its model it would be the one that receives the most perhaps perhaps. Francisco Pérez, research director of the Valencian Institute for Economic Research (IVIE), probably the analysis institution that has most studied the profiles of the illegitimate debt generated by the current model of regional financing, does not share that vision.

Understands that Government proposal is built on a partial assumptionsince it accepts to compensate for the collapse of income regarding how committed the autonomous communities in the great recession, but on the contrary ignore the infinance derived from the lack of adjustment between the income that the system recognizes to some autonomies and the expense in The one that has to incur to provide services under the same conditions as the rest, a detrimental metric according to all studies for the Valencian Community, Murcia region, Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia. “If this factor had taken into account, the Valencian Community would have received 17,800 million, instead of the 11,200 million that have been recognized,” explains Francisco Pérez to ABC.

The researcher, one of the most recognized experts in the field of regional financing, also questions the Autonomies Award that raised the IRPF And he warns that the consequences of the scheme defined by the Government will cause the most indebted autonomies, including the Valencian Community, to be far from being able to look at the markets to finance on their own.