The mayor, Ana KringeAnd the Councilor for Finance, Vicente Chelet, the main lines of the municipal budgets of 2013 advanced yesterday. In the words of the Mayor, it is about "austere, realistic, eminently social and looking for financial balance" budgets.
The budgets for 2013 amount to 47.180.959'64 euros, an 14% less compared to the 2012 accounts. All items decrease except for Social Welfare, Tourism and Commerce.
A Social Welfare will be allocated almost 4'5 million euros and the items will be maintained for aid to canteen, social, welfare and charitable measures to the most disadvantaged people. This chapter also includes a heading for the expansion of urban gardens, "highly demanded within the Local 21 Agenda", according to Kringe.
The items for Tourism and Commerce will be increased in 2013 because they are part of the City's economic activation plan. The Tourism budget has been set at 1.404.000 euros (284.000 euros more than this year) and includes the creation of a new item of 100.000 euros for the "conservation of buildings" that will be used to complete the refurbishment works of the old building market where the Tourism Office of the municipality will be located.
As far as Commerce is concerned, its budget will be increased by around 50.000 euros and amounts to a total of 147.188 euros.
The mayor has indicated that the austerity plan followed by the council "has allowed 2012 to save almost 3 millions of euros in current expenditure", thanks to the containment measures applied and the revision of the service contracts signed by the consistory.
On the expense side, it is expected a decrease of 5% in Personal caused by the depreciation of places for retirement, leaving the budget in euros 17.416.000. Spending on current goods and services increased by 1'64% and financial expenses amounted to EUR 2.083.000.
As a novelty, a Contingency Fund is created, with 200.000 euros, "to deal with works of an urgent nature or court rulings that arrive unexpectedly without having to carry out credit modifications," said Vicente Chelet.
In terms of income, the collection foreseen by the main taxes drops considerably: an 5% in the case of the IBI, in 100.000 euros for the circulation tax and in 700.000 euros in the case of the ICIO. The collection forecast for urban licenses also decreases in 100.000 euros; in 300.000 for circulation fines and market and market rates in 100.000 euros. In addition, the mobile telephony rate disappears as well as the 5 million euros that were expected to enter as a sewer fee.
