2023-10-17 10:50:23
“The course is maintained, despite the pitching,” assures Sylvie Marcilly, the diverse-right president of the Charente-Maritime department. Called to lead these days the “fall session” traditionally devoted to the budgetary debate, the elected official has just announced the postponement of the vote on the 2024 budget until April… 2024, the deadline imposed by law. “We lack visibility on our revenues and this data is essential to construct a budget as close as possible to the financial realities of the department,” explains Sylvie Marcilly who intends to rely on “a more reasoned vision” to guarantee “good management of our finance”. To justify this unusual decision outside the electoral period, the elected Fourasine mentions the reduction in transfer taxes on expensive securities resulting from real estate sales. The prosperous and post-Covid years seem to be over: this windfall could drop by 45 million euros in 2023 compared to 2022, notes the department which could also lose an additional 5 million from VAT.
Sylvie Marcilly also highlights the surge in social spending estimated at “more than 50 million over the last three years”. “This budgetary context forces us to refocus on our skills, but does not compromise any of the major projects of the department,” insists the president of Charente-Maritime who wishes to finance in the years to come the bypass of Marans or the protection of Fort Boyard .
If it is urgent to wait, the choice of the departmental majority is a challenge. Should we fear a turn of the screw? How to generate savings? These questions agitate the opposition groups informed in advance by Sylvie Marcilly. “These announcements worry us,” confirms Brigitte Desveaux, co-president of the departmental left group At the heart of solidarity. The reduction in transfer taxes – a return to their pre-Covid level in reality – was “predictable”, insists this elected official, calling for “evaluation of each euro spent by the department”. Same tone from Jean-Marc Soubeste, co-president of the environmental group: “We knew full well that there would be uncertainties, but all the communities will manage to present their budgets within normal deadlines… Internal debates and difficult choices cannot -not have been decided within the majority.” This opponent thus calls for “a clarification of the policy and priorities of the departmental majority”.
Social centers will not see their allocations decrease
His fear? That savings be made to the detriment of the energy renovation of colleges and social policy, two areas where the department’s skills are fully exercised. Brigitte Desveaux shares this observation and fears in particular a drop in allocations allocated to social centers at the very time when they must find more than 1.5 million euros to compensate for the mechanical increase in salaries. “You have to make choices. The priority is the energy transition and social issues,” summarizes Brigitte Desveaux, criticizing “the tourism policy” in which the department is heavily investing.
Sylvie Marcilly seems to have anticipated some of these criticisms. “The department obtained a loan from the European Investment Bank at very advantageous rates [qui] will make it possible to finance energy optimization work in colleges,” adds the president of Charente-Maritime. The social centers will not see their allocations decrease, she added this Monday in the assembly. They are, on the other hand, called upon to cut their operating budget in the same way as the services, “satellites” and other “structures” supported by the department. Faced with “permanent uncertainty”, this shared effort will generate savings, explained the elected official. The majority’s intentions should be clarified next January during the budgetary orientation debate, a mandatory exercise which precedes the budget vote each year.
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