“You have to invest. » The minister in charge of local authorities, Dominique Faure does not miss an opportunity to repeat this message to local elected officials, during each of her trips. “The means are there”she for example recalled on January 8, in Haute-Saône, stressing that the government “put in 4 billion euros” in the 2023 budget to support local authority investment in 2023. They represent 70% of public investment. In the eyes of the executive, it is therefore the fuel of the economy. Impossible, therefore, to achieve full employment if they do not invest enough, repeats the top of the State. And what about the ecological transition, in which their role is decisive?
This subject is considered serious by the majority. To the point that the delegation to the territorial communities of the National Assembly devoted a morning of work to it, Thursday, February 2. “The period is anxiety-provoking for elected officialsnotes its president, the Renaissance deputy of Gironde, Thomas Cazenave. Which may lead them to be very cautious in 2023. Yet now is not the time to slow down. We have an investment wall in front of us. »
The survey carried out by the Center for Political Research of Sciences Po for the Association of Mayors of France, in November, showed it well: entangled in crises, mayors are worried. Four out of ten elected officials say they will not accelerate their energy transition projects, on the grounds that they have ” not the means to implement them”. Deputy Director of the French Observatory of Economic Conditions, Mathieu Plane recalls that “public investment, although low today compared to what we saw before 2013, is still 3% below its level at the end of 2019, while private investment is nearly 10% above “.
The main associations of local elected officials warn: this year, “a historic fall” local investment is possible. In Britain, for example, “After the shock of the health crisis and the budgetary difficulties, we reduced a little”, says Loïg Chesnais-Girard, socialist president of the regional council. For high schools, it went from 140 million euros per year to 110 million. “I have no right to be in deficitrecalls Mr. Chesnais-Girard. So, when self-financing drops, I reduce my investment a little to give myself some air and avoid the red zone. » Same for ports. The Brittany region has about twenty of them. In Saint-Malo, it wants to electrify the quays to reduce the diesel consumption of ferries. But, at 3 million euros per dock, only one will be equipped for the moment.
You have 48.98% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.