The municipal government faces the negotiation of the budgets aligned with ERC and with Junts, PP, Cs and Valents accusing it of maintaining an excessive tax burden
The last great negotiation in the Barcelona City Council before the municipal elections is about to be tackled. Once again, the government of Ada Colau will have to seduce part of the opposition to carry out the budgets. The procedure has been a usual puzzle for the mayor: she frequently ran aground during her first four years as head of the City Council, forced more than once to extend the accounts due to lack of partners, a lack that she has reversed during her second term, allying herself with ERC and with Valents to support the forecasts of income and expenses of ‘comuns’ and socialists. The municipal bipartisan once again tests its ability to agree, in the last corner before the elections. In the absence of discovering the main lines of the budget proposal, the bipartite shows that it does not agree with the tax reduction that part of the opposition demands to open up to an understanding.
Barcelona en Comú and PSC have ruled out this Wednesday in the council’s economy commission that the municipal accounts project for 2023 incorporate a cut in municipal taxes and fees. The debate, promoted by the PP and Cshas served to make it clear again that the options of the municipal executive to avoid running aground with the accounts are reduced in practice to renewing the pact with ERC. The Republicans have allowed an abortion with their votes that the request of the right wing so that Barcelona mitigates the fiscal pressure. Junts, PP, Cs and Valents have voted in favor of the tax reduction, which places them from the start far from paving the approval of the budgets to Colau.
“The fiscal policy of the city council is not abusive & rdquor;, has defended the Councilor for Tourism, Xavier Marcé (PSC), who has opined that the requests for the consistory to reduce taxes are “out of place & rdquor ;. Marcé recalled that the municipal government reduced rates during 2020, coinciding with the fall in the economy and the closure of shops during the confinement due to covid. “The global reduction in income was 46 million euros, which was maintained in 2021 & rdquor ;, highlighted the mayor. In turn, he has defended that it is up to the local government to have “action capacity & rdquor; to “intervene where it is necessary in a situation as serious as the one that has been experienced with the pandemic and that can be lived with probability & rdquor; due to rising prices.
Much of the opposition has disagreed and has argued precisely that inflation should lead the local government to ease the tax burden. “The city council enters more taxes and fees every year, so has the capacity to apply a reduction to lighten the inflationary burden, even if it is temporary in 2023&rdquor ;, has postulated the ‘number one’ of the PP, Josep Bou. “We have to save families, freelancers and companies for the next fiscal year & rdquor ;, warned Paco Sierra (Cs), who has warned that the scenario that is glimpsed in the coming months for businesses and homes is “dantesque”.
Junts has positioned itself on this occasion with popular and liberal. Councilor Ferran Mascarell has urged the government team to reflect in order to “not accentuate the fiscal policy on the people of Barcelona, because it is high and the moment is delicate”. On the contrary, ERC has invited the rest of the opposition not to be closed to negotiating the budgets with the municipal executive. “What cannot be done is that we approve a contingency plan in which more money is allocated and, 10 minutes later, we propose lowering taxes & rdquor ;, Republican Miquel Puig has opposed.
Ciutat Vella corrupt plot
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On the other hand, the municipal government has informed this Wednesday that it will look for the formula to compensate former councilwoman Itziar González and official Lourdes Conesa, who suffered pressure for the corrupt plot of tourist flats uncovered more than a decade ago in Ciutat Vella. González, then a PSC councilor, resigned after being forced by the threats. A recent sentence has condemned 17 involved in the fraudulent licensing network. Among those implicated are municipal workers.
Colau met this Wednesday with González and Conesa, revealed the councilor of Ciutat Vella, Jordi Rabassa, at the request of Junts in the presidency commission. The mayor has commented that the executive will study with the two affected by the plot “the next steps to take in terms of reparation & rdquor ;. The council paid the cost of the lawyer and attorney for González and Conesa during the trial, but Rabassa has admitted that both victims do not feel they have received sufficient support from the council. “Surely we have not been up to the task when it comes to accompanying them”the councilor has opined.