Thursday, November 16, 2023, 17:04
How are next year’s budgets going to be closed if we know how much will be able to be raised? That is the question asked by the mayor of Orihuela, Pepe Vegara, who this Thursday acknowledged, in response to questions from the media, that the rate for garbage collection will inevitably have to be increased.
«The PP of Orihuela promised in the electoral campaign that it would try not to raise taxes. This also makes the design of that budget significantly difficult. Obviously it is something that will have to be done. We all know that Urban Waste is a tax that must be raised because the law forces us to ensure that the user is the one who covers the total cost of the service,” explained the Oriolano councilor.
Even so, he let it be known that this will not happen immediately. He stated that the government team will stretch the decision as long as possible and exhaust the legal deadlines. “The City Council is going to wait that year until there is no choice to raise taxes so that citizens are as comfortable as possible.”
The problem that forces the region’s councils to apply an increase in garbage rates in the first instance lies fundamentally in a new tax. The newly implemented tax obliges regional Consortiums to record those municipalities that present higher rates of improper waste, that is, those that carry more garbage that, although it could have been recycled, has ended up in the ‘Rest’ container. The objective of this rate, therefore, is precisely to encourage the user to recycle.
According to calculations by the former mayor of Urban Waste, Dámaso Aparicio (PP), provided to LA VERDAD when he served as a councilor in the opposition during the last term, with a percentage of improper people close to 40% in Orihuela, the ‘party’ could increase the budget from the Department of Urban Waste in about 600,000 euros annually, 50,000 monthly.
The amount of the garbage rate, for its part, takes stagnant since at least 2003, the popular José Manuel Medina being mayor. The tax figures for household garbage collection have not changed, as reflected last October by the City Council on your bulletin board, when he republished the current ordinance. In this sense, internally, the government recognizes that the figures are outdated and that they do not even cover the service. Even less with the improvements that are currently being planned to be implemented with the eco-parks or the expansion of the fleet and machinery, which has been paid for with 2.5 million of the remaining treasury, but which is intended to continue with more investments. The famous cleaning “shock plan” was precisely one of the mayor’s main workhorses in the last campaign.
Furthermore, this coming year is presented as a key year in the service, which will be managed by the municipal company Surpal. The PP-Vox government team, in this sense, is going to commission an external study that will decide whether the municipal service in 2012 should continue to be entirely public management or if, on the contrary, it should make room for private investment through entry. of a capitalist partner that generates greater investment capacity for the City Council that results in improved benefits.
Difficulties in budgets
Vegara acknowledged that, as long as this tax increase is not fully realized, this, in another order of things, “makes the design of those budgets difficult in some way.” Even so, he assured that the budgets “are practically finished and that in a few days you will have news and that they will be approved in the first plenary session within the deadline.”
The current accounts have been extended since 2018 due to lack of agreement, first between PP and Ciudadanos during the government of Emilio Bascuñana, and later between PSOE and Ciudadanos with Carolina Gracia at the helm. The mayor did not venture to give reasons why his predecessors have not been able to put the budget into operation in a timely manner, but he did hide behind the fact that Orihuela’s budget is “complex” and he insisted again “in the coming days.” you will have good news.
The previous executive hired an external company to prepare the new accounts. About 6,000 euros were invested and in the end the accounts did not work out. Now Pepe Vegara, like his predecessor, has retained the powers of the area (now called the Economic Regime). Sources within the government team acknowledge that they have dispensed with external help and that, unlike their predecessors, they have chosen to allocate the work of at least two of their advisors to, together with Vegara himself, prepare those long-awaited accounts. In recent weeks, the same media abound, conclaves in this regard have been frequent.
For his part, the councilor of the Coast and leader of Vox, Manuel Mestre, already stated in a radio talk show that his part in the accounts is already more than ready. It is not unreasonable to assume that, in this matter of coalitions, each partner tries to bring the ember to his sardine or, in this case, to his council. He already told Mestre that he has an ambitious plan of 50 million in four years for the coast.
Not a word from the IBI
The mayor, this Wednesday, did not mention anything at the moment about raising the IBI, although the temptation is there. There are many neighboring municipalities also governed by the PP that have decided to raise the main tax and first source of income for the town councils. This has happened, for example, in Pilar de la Horadada or Redován.
The increase in taxes is also presented as an always delicate issue, but especially in Orihuela more so due to the idiosyncrasy of the municipality, whose extension makes it difficult to provide good and efficient services. In this sense, raising the garbage rate or the IBI would, for example, have strong opposition on the coast, where the majority of residents appreciate that the taxes they pay to the City Council are not later reflected in garbage collection or in the maintenance of roads and green areas.
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