This unexpected announcement, released on Twitter Monday, September 26 in the middle of the afternoon when the finance bill (PLF) for 2023 had been presented with great fanfare at Bercy the same morning, will undoubtedly not change the minds of the Locally elected. “210 million euros in overall operating funding #DGF » will be allocated to local authorities, welcomed “their” minister, Caroline Cayeux. This is “a first for thirteen yearsshe writes again. 70% of municipalities will see their allocation maintained or increased”.
At the same time, the first deputy vice-president of the Association of Mayors of France, André Laignel, judged this PLF “generally calamitous”, specifying that the mayors will ask parliamentarians to completely rewrite it. The body bringing together the departments (the ADF, Assembly of the Departments of France) is less severe, falling “some progress”.
Three “red lines” have been crossed, considers André Laignel. And one of them concerns precisely the DGF that Caroline Cayeux mentions in her tweet. All elected officials demanded that it keep up with inflation. It’s no. The 210 million announced by the minister are very far from the mark, believes André Laignel, who anticipates a drop in purchasing power of 1.2 billion euros for the municipalities due to inflation. Especially since the “safety net” voted in August will only apply in 2023, and would only concern « 5 000 » municipalities out of 35,000.
Decline in purchasing power and perverse effects
The second snag concerns the abolition of the business value added contribution (CVAE). The elect are against it. They consider that “it cuts the link between the territories and the economic world and that goes against an intelligent policy of reindustrialisation”. This production tax, which benefits local communities, brings in 8 billion euros per year. It will disappear in two stages, in 2023 and 2024.
However, the PLF does provide for a “integral, long-lasting and dynamic compensation” : a part of VAT, which increases more strongly than the CVAE, specifies the government. But, for André Laignel, the methods envisaged will produce perverse effects,“huge distortions” between territories. The ADF is, again, less severe, seeing “a relative point of satisfaction” in the calculation mode.
Last stumbling block: the government is asking local elected officials to participate in the recovery of the country’s public finances. However, if the ADF “agrees” on the idea of working with the State, the mayors consider that there is “no objective reason” to this requirement. “We are not participating in France’s deficit”, recalls André Laignel. As for the debt, that of the communities, “we finance it ourselves”. The mayors point out, moreover, that they have already been “punctured” of 46 billion euros since 2014.
The “trust pact” proposed by Bercy in its draft budget to achieve this does not suit mayors either. The objective is to strongly encourage local authorities to spend half a point less than inflation each year. Even if it means cutting into their investment capacities. « Aberrant »slice André Laignel.