Kortrijk wants to get rid of a deficit of 47 million euros by postponing projects
Like all cities and municipalities, the city of Kortrijk is also confronted with inflation: rising energy and fuel prices and expensive building materials. Add to this the wage costs of employees, which have risen unexpectedly quickly: “The pivotal index has been exceeded three times in recent months and we expect three more exceedances in the short term”, it sounds. And you arrive at an additional cost of 331 million euros and a deficit of 47 million euros in the multi-year budget.
To cover this shortfall, the city council is working out a savings. That exercise normally takes place in December, but the city didn’t want to wait that long. The savings are made without levying new taxes, without naked redundancies and without savings in care, services and assistance.
Delete projects
Kortrijk has an investment budget that is among the highest among the Flemish central cities. The city wants to keep it that way, but makes choices in planned projects to compensate for the increased costs.
“A total of about 35 million euros has to be found to solve the inflation problem. We are therefore critically looking at whether there are projects that can or should be postponed. This ranges from very small efficiency gains to scrapping projects in its entirety. entirely from the multi-year budget 2020-2025.”
City Hall renovation has to wait
In the first place, the city council chooses to cut projects that have no direct impact on the citizen. For example, the biggest deletion is the renovation of the current town hall (6 million euros).
The implementation of phase 2 of the music center (2.2 million euros) will be postponed to the next legislature. A number of projects were also examined within sport. The council of aldermen decided to cancel the planned expansions on the site Wembley to be postponed (3 million euros).
The reconstruction of the inner area in Marke (2 million euros) can no longer be implemented in time during this legislature. The city council wants to protect the open area here from construction and provides a budget to be able to carry out the necessary land acquisitions.
In the project of wzc Saint Vincent (1.3 million euros) in turn, savings can be made in expenditure. In the project Cycling and Green Structure Kortrijk North savings can be made by prioritizing the area between the Astrid Park and the Bozestraat and planning the section between the Bozestraat and the Heulebeek valley later (2 million euros). Sewage works in the Cyriel Buyssestraat (1.2 million euros) will be postponed. The project in the Tombroekstraat (1 million euros) is included in a global study on the redevelopment of the center of Rollegem.
These choices should yield the city 1 million euros. The full list of choices will be presented and explained to the city council in September.
Tempering energy consumption and less staff
To reduce energy consumption, the city council is strongly committed to an energy action plan and the more sustainable use of the vehicle fleet. For example, the energy-consuming ice rink on Schouwburgplein during Winter in Kortrijk will either have to become more energy-efficient or be replaced by something else.
Where possible, the annual operating budgets of the services are not indexed, which means that each service will have to use its own resources more economically.
In consultation with the city’s management team, the current workforce will be optimized and reduced by 33 employees by 2025. This can be done without naked layoffs, by not replacing people after departure or retirement and by giving employees the opportunity to work within the city organization. to move into another position.
Higher taxes
Kortrijk gets 36 percent of the amount still to be saved, or 2.6 million, from extra revenue. “As agreed in the administrative agreement, there will be no new taxes for the Kortrijkzaan. However, it has been decided to correctly index the existing taxes and fees across all services.”
There was no automatic indexation within the city (with the exception of the operations of the OCMW). “This meant that some amounts were no longer up to date. For example, today you pay the same price for the processing and issue of a driving license as in 2014, namely 25 euros. By correctly indexing that price, that will become 30 euros from 1 January 2023.”
The parking rates and the prices of garbage bags are not indexed.