A boost for politics in Meppel. Last year the municipality made almost 14 million euros in profit, according to the annual accounts presented yesterday. Because the Meppel reserve jar has now been filled with 53 million euros, the city council will get a pot filled with money and can look for themselves what it will be used for.
It concerns 17 million euros with which the council can get started. That at a time when large investments of millions of euros are waiting.
In 2023, the municipality already wrote around 11 million euros in black figures, a year earlier and about 5 million the year before. The almost 14 million euros ‘profit’ from last year is mainly in extra money from The Hague for the reception of refugees from Ukraine and for protected living.
But it is also because the municipality has received millions to convert the Noordpoort industrial estate into a residential area, but that money has not yet been spent. “That means we get interest from the bank for that amount,” says Alderman Klaas de Vries.
All those millions who have immediately entered the reserve jar of the municipality in recent years. Also the 13.9 million from last year. “The reserve of the municipality is actually an apple for the thirst.” If money is suddenly needed for something, it can be taken care of from it. For example, to catch the dreaded canyon year, although extra money is now coming to the municipalities from The Hague. For Meppel it is about 1 to 2 million euros annually.
In the meantime, that apple has become a big apple. “We have calculated and established by the city council that the reserve must contain around 36 million euros. We just can’t get that.” With this year’s money, the piggy bank comes to just under 53 million euros.
17 million euros is now being taken out. “We don’t leave that money in the bank,” says De Vries. But what she will do with it, he leaves that to the city council. For example, large millions of renovations are waiting for the Ogterop theater, the town hall or the swimming pool. “But also think of schools or sports fields. This money can be used well for that.” As far as he is concerned, the 17 million does not have to be used for one project, but rather distributed over the investments.
It seems good news for the municipality, but it is not all of that. The advantage of 14 million is also due to a lack of staff. Less has been spent on salaries than expected, because she does not get the vacancies filled. But the biggest worry child remains the future. As it stands now, and despite the extra money from The Hague, there will be a deficit of 5 million in 2028. “The 1 or 2 million extra of the empire does not close that.”
The municipality has not yet done a cut last year and it will not do that for the first years. To close the gap of 5 million euros, De Vries wants to do it completely differently. For example, in terms of (youth) care: “Now we extinguish fires. We want to focus more on preventive. But it does cost money to change that. You can’t just stop the old policy and start the new. You will have to invest in prevention, but in the meantime continue to extinguish the fires.”
One of the things he looks at in terms of prevention is to focus on youth care. “You see when you invest in youth care, that you will spend less on care later.”