“Communities are not responsible for the deterioration of public accounts”The day after a report from the Court of Auditors, the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) published a press release on Tuesday, July 23, in which it calls for the role of the State to be clearly defined in the deteriorating financial situation of local authorities.
The AMF contests in particular “stubbornness” from the Ministry of Finance to ” impose “ to the communities a “decrease in their financial means”.
In his report “which prefigures the preparation of the draft finance bill”specifies the AMF, the Court of Auditors noted in particular that local authorities had lost 3.9 billion euros in 2023, the departments being by far the worst off.
The latter, whose expenses are mainly allocated to medical and social action, with for example the payment of the active solidarity income (RSA), have seen their savings melt by 4.7 billion euros. They have also suffered greatly from the slowdown in the real estate market, a large part of their income coming from transfer taxes levied on real estate transactions, included in the ” notary fees “.
But the budgets of the communities “are necessarily balanced and their debt, intended solely for investment, has been stable for thirty years, at 8.9% of the gross domestic product. They have already supported a significant financial effort for fifteen years”argues the AMF in its press release entitled “Deterioration of public finances: technocrats still don’t understand anything”.
New charges for communities
At the same time, “The State has continued its spending trajectory, largely burdened by nationalizations of local taxes”regrets the AMF, while the communities “take on a set of new responsibilities”including the management of “dikes” and “coastline retreat” or ” Security “ and the ” early childhood “we can read.
“The budgetary seriousness so often put forward by the Court of Auditors and the government, requires a fair presentation of the State’s responsibilities in the deterioration of public deficits”finally tackles the AMF.
The day before, in a press release, the Regions of France association had acknowledged the “continued deterioration of the financial situation of the regions”also raised by the Court of Auditors. “Without allocation of new funding”these communities “will be forced to revise downwards their investments, particularly in favour of transport, mobility and the energy renovation of buildings”we could read.