The three governments denounce that they would lose income due to the new method of calculating the adjusted population
Along different paths and possibly with different final objectives, the popular president of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso his Valencian socialist counterpart, Ximo Puigand the pro-independence ‘president’ Pere Aragones They agree on one thing: their absolute rejection of the proposal that the Government has sent to open the dance of a new regional financing model to update a system that has been out of date for eight years. Both governments feel especially harmed by the Executive’s calculations when it comes to distributing resources. They are numbers based on changing the calculation of the “adjusted” population of each autonomy.
The ‘adjusted population’ is key because it determines the distribution of 75% of the regional financing resources among the different communities. Based on the initial real population data, the system calculates the spending needs of each community based on geographic and demographic variables, such as the surface area of the territory, the dispersion of the population, the insularity or the age groups of the population.
The principle of ordinality
According to the Community of Madrid, in the current regional financing model, the difference between the real and adjusted population exceeds 3%, “which represents a loss of financing of more than 200,000 inhabitants”, according to regional government sources. With the Treasury proposal, the difference would rise to around 250,000 inhabitants, and that, according to the Community’s calculations, could mean a final loss of 4% in the distribution of regional financing, in the absence of knowing possible changes in the rest of the pieces that make up the system, beyond the adjusted population criterion. Catalonia also considers that the criterion that should prevail is that of the real population.
Ayuso claims the principle of ordinality, claimed by various governments of the Generalitat
In addition, the Government of Madrid criticizes that the proposal that the Treasury has put on the table is “scant and partial”, since it leaves for later the reforms that could affect the convergence funds that serve to level the distribution of resources. Among other issues, Madrid demands that the so-called ‘principle of ordinality’ be respected. Madrid is the community with the highest fiscal capacity per inhabitant, but when the current financing system is applied, the community falls to number 9 in resources per adjusted inhabitant. According to the principle of ordinality, which has also been demanded by Catalan governments of different political stripes, solidarity with the rest of the communities should have as a limit that no autonomy would go down steps in income from the system per adjusted inhabitant.
Towards “full fiscal sovereignty”
For its part, the Government has sent the Ministry of Finance a very harsh document in which it fully questions the criteria proposed by the Government. The ‘conseller’ of Economy, Jaume Giró, could not be more forceful in the document sent to the Government when concluding -in a sense similar to that of the Madrid Government- than what the Ministry of Maria Jesus Montero it is not “nor a proposal to reform the financing system”. As Giró himself advanced in an interview with EL PERIÓDICO, the ‘conselleria’ rejects the concept of adjusted population raised by the Treasury and “aspires and works to achieve full fiscal sovereignty”. Turn warns, like Ayuso, that starting the model review of financing with a proposal on the adjusted population comes to indicate that the global model that is going to be proposed “is not going to improve the financial autonomy of the autonomous communities”.
Giró accuses the Treasury of going against federalism and claims full fiscal sovereignty
In the document, the ‘conseller’ makes Montero ugly because he is showing intentions contrary to greater fiscal autonomy and a federal vision of the State: “A model is glimpsed in which the spending needs instead of considering the tax capacity of each autonomous community as essential. A needs-based funding model moves us away from the funding models of more developed federal countries.”
Valencia also rejects the criterion of depopulation
Madrid and Catalonia also reject the criterion of depopulation. Giró asks that corrective policies be applied outside the model and the community chaired by Ayuso appeals to the concentration factor of the population, which entails expenses in mobility. Valencian experts have already concluded that depopulation should not appear in the calculation and that dispersion does not generate more spending but less and that instead insularity must be taken into account because it makes services more expensive.
Related news
If Catalonia considers that the Treasury model harms it because its real population is more than the adjusted one, that also happens with the Valencian population, around five million, but it counts for less. The government of the socialist Ximo Puig has expressed its rejection through a committee of experts, endorsed by parties, employers and unions integrated into the platform ‘Per un finançament just’, with the support of the president of the Valencian PP Carlos Mazón, reports Carlos Alos.
At least three other autonomous communities governed by the PSOE –Baleares, Castilla-La Mancha and Asturias–, and another by the PP –Galicia– have maintained their criticism of the Ministry of Finance’s proposal in their allegations that they have sent to the central government this Monday, which was when the term ended.