She ended up coming to terms with it. Anne Hidalgo announced this Monday noon by a press release on Twitter the increase in the property tax (TF) in Paris. This will increase by 7 points, which amounts to an increase of more than 50% since it will increase from 13.5% to 20.5%. And yet barely a year ago Paul Simondon, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of finance, refused this possibility, assuring 20 minutes that “the municipality is attentive to the purchasing power of Parisians”.
But inflation went through it. “The cost of foodstuffs for canteens has increased by 40%”, quotes as an example Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj, the president of the communist group and recent citizen co-author of a report on The future of local finance in Paris. He also advances the government’s decision to raise the index point for civil servants to explain the lack of 400 million euros to complete the 2023 budget. “We knew it would be very complicated,” says the elected Parisian.
The government in charge
And on the subject, Anne Hidalgo does not spare the government. “All the municipalities of France are today faced with a very difficult situation which, unfortunately, has not been taken into account by the government”, she wrote in her press release. It thus criticizes the government for having rejected amendments allowing in particular to tax more the owners of vacant accommodation and second homes or to raise the tourist tax for luxury hotels. “With the latter, we had the possibility of recovering up to 200,000 euros but the amendment was swept away by 49.3”, regrets Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj.
Faced with this, the mayor of Paris says she is faced with a double choice: “either degrade our public services”, “or reduce our investments in the ecological transition”. Refusing this choice, she decided to appeal “to the solidarity of Parisian owners”, by increasing the property tax. But, specifies Anne Hidalgo, “owners who have invested in the thermal renovation of their apartment and those who encounter economic difficulties will be 100% exempt from property tax. »
A manna of 500 to 600 million euros
“We had the lowest TF rate in France, with this increase, the first since 2011, we are back in the middle, calculates the elected communist. For an apartment of 50 to 60 m², that’s about an increase of 250 euros. The additional revenue is estimated at between 500 and 600 million euros, more than enough to complete the budget and above all to “continue the investment policy by building cycle paths, sports equipment, nurseries…”.
For his part, the elected ecologist, Emile Meunier welcomes “a necessary and courageous decision”. And he insists that “this new funding must be used as a priority for the adaptation of the city to global warming and to support the poorest people in the crisis”.