The Treasury Commission approves the Financial Reorganization Plan with which it hopes to achieve an economic contribution to the municipal coffers of 83.5 million euros
The Murcia City Council currently has a negative treasury surplus of almost 29 million euros that it has carried over from 2020 and 2021. To compensate for this, the government team presented this Tuesday before the Treasury Commission a Reorganization plan to be executed in the next five years. with which he hopes to achieve an economic contribution to the municipal coffers of 83.5 million euros.
The plan was approved with the votes in favor of PSOE, Cs and Podemos and the rejection of PP and Vox. Both parties described it as “nonsense”, and the measures included as “speculations of doubtful compliance”. In addition, they considered a “total and utter irresponsibility” that is not presented with the report of the City Council Intervention.
The Councilor for Economic Management, Enrique Lorca, defended the plan drawn up by his team and explained that he has all the favorable technical reports. He indicated that the opinion of Intervention does not appear because “he considers that he does not have to do it”, but he will monitor compliance with the measures.
Measures proposed
Among the twelve measures proposed are two that were highly criticized by PP and Vox: the sale of public land (which will contribute 10 million until 2026, although initially they proposed reaching 40 million), since they consider it unreal considering that this year not one euro of the planned 6 million has been sold. Lorca stressed that the Heritage Service sees it as feasible.
And the income of 22 million euros thanks to the improvement of the inspection work of the Municipal Tax Agency. «He is a real nonsense; It has never been achieved nor will it be achieved, ”said the popular councilor Eduardo Martínez-Oliva.
The government team also hopes to return to the green numbers and get out of the situation of “creditor contest”, in the words of Enrique Lorca, with these dozen measures “that involve cuts to basic services or a rise in taxes or fees” .
The City Council foresees, among others, the freezing of the salaries of the corporation and temporary employees (it will mean a saving of just over 265,000 euros); adapt public tenders by reducing maximum contracts, which will contribute 5 million until 2026 (it will not affect essential benefits such as Education, Social Services, Housing, and Disability); and the centralization of all municipal services in units owned by the City Council, which will save 280,000 euros on rent. Expenditure on electricity, water and gas will also be reduced with an adjustment plan. “If everything goes well in 2026 we will have 8 million positive treasury remnants again,” Lorca stressed.
PP and Vox reactions
For Martínez-Oliva, from the PP, what is presented means “passing the hot potato” to the next municipal corporation that comes out of the May 2023 elections, and putting on a “blindfold.” In addition, he announced that his Municipal Group requested that Intervention issue a report on the Plan before it goes for final approval to the extraordinary plenary session on Friday.
And he proposed as measures that could be applied this year the review of large contracts to adjust them and reduce the electricity bill “by dimming the streetlights.”
The councilor for Vox, Inmaculada Ortega, insisted on the need for this Intervention report, “if it is true that the City Council is technically bankrupt, as Lorca says.” Ortega defended that it was necessary for the City Council to “tighten its belt”, as she had already demanded of it, and also of the previous PP government team. She recalled that she presented a spending cut plan after reviewing each budget item that represented a saving of 64 million euros. “The previous government showed us off the cliff, this one has thrown us to it,” she concluded.
#Murcia #City #Council #hopes #save #budget #deficit #fiveyear #measures