According to LREM deputy Jean-René Cazeneuve, this good performance is the result in particular of state support during the pandemic.
If relations have always been tense between Emmanuel Macron and local elected officials, the finances of local authorities have however improved during the five-year term. In any case, this is what emerges from the report on the state of the accounts of the municipalities, departments and regions carried out by Jean-René Cazeneuve, LREM deputy for Gers and president of the delegation to local authorities, published on Monday.
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“Whatever the indicators taken into account, they are all in progress”, and this despite the health crisis, indicates the deputy who relies on data from the Directorate General of Public Finances (DGFiP). Between 2017 and 2021, actual operating revenue thus increased by 5.6% (+€11.4 billion), savings increased by 23.2%, cash was up by 36.4% . And, at the same time, real investment expenditure was dynamic (+14.9%). Finally, the territories’ debt reduction capacity has improved.
According to the deputy, this good performance results in particular from the maintenance of allocations during the five-year term or even from the support of the State during the pandemic, which mobilized 12 billion euros in favor of the territories. Result of the races: while the communities feared a very strong deterioration in their finances, they were much more resilient than expected, with a cost of the crisis “moderate and limited” estimated at 4 billion euros in 2020.
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Finally, concerning local taxation, with the thorny gradual abolition of the housing tax by 2023 and the reduction of 10 billion euros in production taxes, “local authorities were compensated to the nearest euro (…), as promised and contrary to popular belief or deliberately conveyed”, reaffirms Jean-René Cazeneuve. Too, “in no way can an elected official refer to this reform (of the housing tax, editor’s note) to justify an increase in the property tax rate in 2022”, insists the deputy, in the middle of the presidential campaign. What arouse the ire of some local elected officials who say the opposite…