Eventually, he will have crossed the pans. It is past 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 25, and around thirty demonstrators brandishing CGT and Solidaires-public finances banners are waiting firmly for Gabriel Attal in front of the Mauguio cultural center, in Hérault, near Montpellier.
Accompanied by his counterpart in the civil service, Stanislas Guerini, the Minister Delegate for Public Accounts came to debate with around thirty French people, invited by the local (Renaissance) deputy, Patrick Vignal. Subject: the launch of the “Get it for my taxes” campaign, a national consultation during which taxpayers are asked to give their opinion on the use of public money, the quality of public services, sources of possible savings or preferred expenditure items.
“We are one of the countries with the highest level of compulsory levies and where we spend the most”begins the former government spokesperson, before outlining the tax reforms of the past six years: “We abolished the housing tax, the TV license fee, we lowered the income tax scale, we exempted overtime from tax, we raised the childcare tax credit…” A Prévert-style inventory in the form of a look in the rear-view mirror which badly hides the difficulty of the executive to project himself, at the end of the painful sequence of retreats.
In fact of great consultation, a questionnaire of about twenty points will be sent to some thirty-eight million tax households. “We will ask them, for example: what mismanagement do you identify on a daily basis? », quietly loose the tenant of Bercy. A website should also detail the concrete cost of the main uses of taxes.
“I meet a lot of people in the field who don’t realize how much a year of high school costs [11 000 euros], maintenance of a kilometer of road [110 000 euros], ambulance transport »pleads the minister, who assures that it is also a question of “give the floor to the French” and better the “associate in the elaboration of our choices”. Meetings must be held by the summer in each department.
“Spend less, but better”
While Gabriel Attal was to present, Wednesday in the Council of Ministers with the Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, a “acceleration” of France’s debt reduction trajectory sent to Brussels, the Bercy tenant assures us: “It’s not just about spending less, it’s about spending better. “For housing, there is something that does not fit: we are the European country that spends the most, we do not have the impression that the French are better housed, and we have problems in construction”, he illustrates. The feedback from the French is supposed to feed the next budgets.
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