While the finance bill will be debated next fall in parliament, preparatory discussions are going well. With a major objective for Bercy: how to reduce public spending?
It’s the end of the“plenty”. For the French people, in the words of Emmanuel Macron, but also for the coffers of the State. As part of the 2023 finance bill which will be presented at the end of September, then debated in the fall in parliament, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire instructed a “task force”, at the beginning of the summer, to mission: find ways to reduce the state budget and change the method to do so. If the project was open to right-wing elected officials, according to information from Opinion, only an informal group of several majority MPs took part. Two months ago, the boss of Bercy had promoted this method to respond to the concerns of the Court of Auditors about the increase in public spending. A surge which was explained, according to her, by the increase in aid measures in the face of the health crisis and then against the inflationary outbreak of recent months. These were goingcome to deteriorate the 2022 deficit compared to the scenario of the initial finance law“, alerted the institution of Rue Cambon. In other words, it was time, according to the Court of Auditors, to find a serious budget and turn the page of the famous “whatever the cost”.
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At the head of this mission, a Renaissance deputy from Indre-et-Loire: Daniel Labaronne. Alongside this economist, Charles Sitzenstuhl, elected Renaissance from Bas-Rhin and Matthieu Lefèvre, Renaissance deputy from Val-de-Marne. For several weeks, the trio has been working to find ways to reduce the lifestyle of the state and its structures. Reflections which will be submitted at the end of September to Bruno Le Maire, to the Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal, and to the services of Matignon. “Some ideas seem to us to be priorities, starting with the 2023 finance billexplains Daniel Labaronne. Our task force is part of the long term over the budgets of the coming years. We start the first and we hope to pass the fifth by the end of the five-year term.” The challenge ? “See public spending from three angles: economy, ecology and efficiency.“The objective? “Find a roadmapto respect the deficits planned by the government: around 5% of GDP in 2023 and reach 3% in 2027.
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Be careful, however, not to set up a gas plant. “We do not want to produce the umpteenth report on the reduction of public deficits, we want to tackle real problems so that they intervene in the parliamentary debate», stresses Charles Sitzenstuhl. Who affirms it: if certain proposals are not kept by the government in the presentation of the 2023 budget, these can still come back in the form of amendments. “The end of whatever the cost must materialize through budgetary savings and we want to support the government“, he adds. If the proposals have not yet been completed and validated by the three parliamentarians who, according to the elected representative of Bas-Rhin, “each worked a little in their own corner before meeting each week“, some tracks have already been made public.
A green research tax credit?
Among the priorities, three major areas emerge from this work. First, the aid measures relating to housing which would be too generous. Then, the expenses related to the Ministry of Labor and in particular to its apprenticeship structures. Finally, the duplication of State operators in the fields of Culture or the Environment. “For example, we want to go further in greening the State budget“, points out Mathieu Lefèvre. Another proposal discussed in recent weeks would be to green the research tax credit, used by companies that want to innovate. “We could propose an increased rate for research and development projects in favor of the environment and reduced rates for the others”, explained Jean-René Cazeneuve, general rapporteur for the Budget at the Parisianwho also participated in the work.
Also scrutinized, a removal of several tax exemptions for individuals, businesses or even communities, which would not ultimately have been relevant enough. Until the report is submitted in a few days, discussions with Bercy will continue. “We are not sure to fully measure, at our level, the impact of such and such a measure. If our tracks will be subject to government arbitration, we want to lay the groundwork for good management“, adds the Ile-de-France deputy Mathieu Lefèvre.
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After opening the public spending tap in recent months, the government is trying to regain a minimum of control over its public accounts. “The measures we took during the health crisis were necessary. But here, we are in an economic context which is favorable. We must abandon emergency measures and recovery to put efficiency», Analyzes Daniel Labaronne. The deputy for Indre-et-Loire even spins the metaphor: “If we take French households, they manage their hot water tank. For their bill, they will prefer to take a shower rather than a bath. We are going to try the same thing: have public spending more in the form of showers than in the form of bathtubs. We can do as well but with less money.»
Lively debates at the Palais Bourbon
Cuts in the budget which are not necessarily considered useful according to the formations and political groups in the National Assembly. Including in the presidential majority, where the left wing should see red in the coming weeks and be heard at the Palais Bourbon. “We must move from theory to practice to return to less than 3% before the end of the five-year term. We want to support the government“says Charles Sitzenstuhl, close to Bruno Le Maire. “All the goodwill are welcome. It is an informal working group, it will be necessary to be as many as possible“, tries to reassure, for his part, Mathieu Lefèvre. Before his colleague Daniel Labaronne continues with this consensus strategy: “It is not because a proposal comes from the opposition that it will be rejected. Our group is an outstretched hand to all the deputies of the Assembly.”
With a weaker growth estimate (1% of GDP) and a stronger than expected inflation forecast (4.2%) for 2023, the government could find it difficult to find – and to sell – cuts in the state budget. At the start of the summer, Bruno Le Maire had already sounded the alarm : “Not everything is possible, simply because we have reached public finance red flag. (…). My job as Minister of Finance is to return to balanced public finances by 2027.To better prepare the finance bill, Bruno Le Maire and Gabriel Attal have launched another body in this new school year: the “Dialogues de Bercy”, to undertake compromises in view of the parliamentary discussions which promise to be stormy. Already, the right, via the president of the deputies LR Olivier Marleix, announced that it would not vote for a text to “115 billion euros deficit” when the Nupes has already specified that it would present a counter-budget… whose line will not really relate to the reduction in public expenditure. A burning debate that could push the government to use a tool at its disposal to have this budget approved without a majority: 49.3.