The Plenary Session of the Murcia City Council initially approved this Thursday the 2024 municipal budgets with a hole of almost 94 million, which for the most part does not appear reflected in the accounts. This is established by the unfavorable report of the Municipal Intervention, which is mandatory but not binding and that the opposition groups have put on the table to label as “wet paper” a forecast of income and expenses that now begins the presentation process. public, after being supported only by the government team.
The auditor's document reaches these conclusions in view of the upcoming settlement of the 2023 accounts, which will soon be taken to plenary session next May, and which will contemplate an enormous increase in the negative treasury remainders, that is, an increase of the debt – excess of expenses over income – for which no financing was found in the year in which it was generated.
After the 2022 settlement, these negative remainders amounted to 32 million euros, accumulated in successive years since 2020. To face their payment, and given the insufficiency of the adjustment plan prepared by the previous socialist government, José Ballesta's team requested a legislature credit of 21.5 million. The rest will be covered with the surplus of almost 10 million obtained in the 2024 budgets.
However, this hole ballooned last year, almost multiplying by three. The Councilor for Mobility, Economic Management and Contracting, José Francisco Muñoz, explained this Thursday that this increase is due, among other issues, to “excessive multi-year contracting – projects whose financing is spread over several years – and the increase in costs in those years.” contracts, the increase in Personnel expenses or the cash payment of the sentence for the Mamusa sentence”, which condemns the Consistory to 22 million for the management of the urban planning agreements in the northern zone, instead of “asking for a loan to the impulse fund and have calmly amortized that amount.
PSOE and Vox also emphasize that this large negative treasury balance must be addressed by the City Council during the mandate, despite not being included in the accounts and that it will no longer count on the legislative loan bullet for this purpose, once This has already been requested. «Of the 22 Spanish municipalities with more than 250,000 inhabitants, only two have increased their deficit to dangerous limits; one Murcia and the other Valladolid, with Minister Oscar Puente being the mayor,” Muñoz stressed, attributing the current situation of the municipal coffers to the inheritance received and highlighting that these accounts are necessary to comply with the concessionaire companies and service providers.
“We just arrived; “We have approved two budgets in six months and we are putting the public accounts in order,” Muñoz added, in front of a socialist spokesperson Ginés Ruiz Maciá, who recalled that the popular ones have governed “27 of the last 29 years” and to whom he asked that ” govern and stop opposing the opposition. “They are 'fake' budgets, which will require new cutting measures and with a debt that commits us for the next ten years,” Jose Mariano Orenes said from Vox.
It must be remembered that the negative remaining treasury is thus joined, within the municipal liabilities, to the long-term debt of the City Council, which is financed through credits, and which is around 100 million euros, almost 25 % of the current income of the Consistory. However, it must be emphasized that the Ministry of Finance – with confirmation by the courts – decided to allocate the tram amortization debt to the municipal accounting, which shoots up its debt ratio to 67%, still far from 75%. which marks the intervention of the Ministry when arranging credit operations, and which the Murcia City Council was in not so long ago.
“Unsustainable” personnel spending
On the other hand, the intervention report focuses especially on the expenses of the personnel chapter, alluding to the “unsustainability of the amounts executed in relation to the evolution of income.” In fact, these have grown from 2017 to 2023 by almost 50 million – from 126.8 million to 175.2 million, according to the different settlements – and it has been budgeted for 2024 up to 177 million annually, which has caused a clash of accusations between PP and PSOE in relation to the responsibility for increase.
On the other hand, and in relation to income, Councilor Muñoz presented the budgets a week ago, describing them as the ones with the highest income in history, with 500 million. However, the Intervention report itself speaks of an “insufficient justification of all the increases and amounts included in the current income forecasts.” In fact, the opposition accused the government of collecting “inflated revenues”, higher by “almost one hundred million than what it received last year” and which included a “'sablazo' to taxpayers.” For his part, Muñoz defended himself by pointing out that the forecasts for transfer income from the state, since it does not have General State Budgets, has been “conservative”, compared to what was done by other capitals.
A statue worth 600,000 euros
Finally, and in the investment chapter, Muñoz defended that these “accounts look at the design and implementation of a native, original, own project that has five main axes, which are developing a brand of Murcia's own brand, recovery of heritage, “value the orchard and the Segura river.” He also justified its execution through remainders and sale of land, through which 10 million have already been obtained, of the 17 planned, to add 19 million that skyrocket to 45 with the credit files approved a month ago.
However, Ruiz Maciá criticized the investment priorities, pointing out that, while the amount allocated to Education remains at 165,000 euros, 1.1 million are budgeted for the celebration events of the 1,200th anniversary of the founding of the city of Murcia, which are consumed the entire Tourism budget and include the placement of a commemorative statue at a cost of 600,000 euros.
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