Javier TahiriSEGUIRMADRID Updated: Save Send news by mail electrĂ³nicoTu name *

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The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) live an authentic open war before the last offer made by the Ministry of Finance so that the town halls can spend 5,000 million euros of accumulated surplus in 2019. The proposal of the department, MarĂ­a JesĂºs Montero was that the consistories will lend to the Government to 14,000 million of its remnant, and, in exchange, the Treasury will transfer 5,000 million this year and next year. A supply that is caused stupor among the mayors . Despite the fact that the Treasury made a second proposal in which suspended the spending rule this year, even coalition partners as we Can and aldermen socialists rejected the proposal of the Ministry. Well, the third draft which has sent the Treasury to the EMFF varies little from the previous.

According to the proposal of the Treasury to which he has had access to ABC, the only change it includes is the commitment of the Ministry to give more powers to town halls to address in the forthcoming reform of local finance in this legislature. “The Government, aware of this importance, plans to expand the powers and capacities of the local governments, ensuring the respect of local autonomy and strengthening the role of municipalities as a territorial unit basic.

These reforms, along with the new system of local financing which will be held in parallel with the autonomous communities, will be developed along the legislature “, contains the proposal of the Treasury.

This has caused anger among the selectmen . Sources town hall point to that right now there is no agreement of face the vote tomorrow in the Board of governors of the FEMP, while the negotiation continues and the PSOE is trying to convince United we Can and JxCat. PP and Citizens reject this offer, with voices particularly critical as the mayor of Zaragoza, the popular Jorge AzcĂ³n, or the mayor of Madrid, JosĂ© Luis MartĂ­nez-Almeida. “ It breaks the traditional consensus in the EMFF “, lament these sources to note that, if finally comes out the proposal, it will be only by a narrow majority.

The city councils had with these resources to act against the crisis of the coronavirus and the proposed Treasury expects to transfer to them 2 . 000 million this year and 3,000 the that comes . But the price seems high to change, because the municipalities must provide to the Ministry to 14,000 million to ten years.

From the Ministry explained that the Treasury proposes that the consistories will do a loan because if you spend your savings, accounted for, incurred a deficit, which is prohibited by the Law of Stability in the case of local corporations, and also by the article 135 of the Constitution. That as it may, the president of the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (Airef), Cristina Smith, admitted that the proposal of the Treasury generates some “disincentive” for councils that have reorganized their accounts .

Spending limited

add To this that the rulers do not have absolute freedom to spend these 5,000 million, but are dimensioned to a catalog of investment defined by the Treasury department in the Urban Agenda and Sustainable Mobility (increase of the supply of rental housing or the construction of bike lanes, for example); care of proximity –this includes the increase and improvement of programs for the elderly and dependent, home help and telecare – and culture. The selectmen also are demanding more manga ancha to be able to spend the money where they see fit before the crisis of the coronavirus.

“I always say that it is an evil called surplus , a so-called saving, because there has not been the result of trying to give, have…not, it has been caused by the spending rule,” held the past month of may the own Montero at the Congress of Deputies, when asked why not stop spending to the municipalities on its surplus. “It is not so simple to say that every one with its resources, if any, that use and that do not have them, look for life. I think that we all have sufficient high-mindedness to that in the framework of the Reconstruction Committee of Congress we can agree on what priorities may arise for municipalities to be able to provide in relation to the challenges that we face as a country”, resolved then to the minister.

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