Portal de Cartagena
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The City of Cartagena may allocate several million euros to financially sustainable investments, once the Decree Law is passed, which will prevent the 2017 surplus from having to be earmarked for debt repayment.
The 2017 surplus in Cartagena is just over 13 million euros, of which five will be used to pay invoices that were charged in January 2018. Of the remaining 8.4 million, part will be used to pay the debt and another part may be invested.
The mayor, Ana Belén Castejón, attended on Tuesday, February 27, a meeting of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), which has claimed the need for the Ministry of Finance and the Government of Spain to adopt the necessary measures so that the Town Councils can allocate their surpluses to investments and not only to the amortization of debt because, otherwise, they will be suffocated.
The mayor recalled that the City of Cartagena has complied with the Budget Stability Law.
In fact, in June 2015 the municipal debt amounted to 175 million euros and as of December 31, 2017 it had been reduced to 101.5 million euros.
"We have managed to lower our debt by 75 million euros.
Only during the year 2017 was reduced by 22 million.
It is not logical that municipalities like ours, which is scrupulously complying with the Budget Stability Law and is obtaining surplus in all its exercises, are limited and do not allow us to invest part of this money.
We are the administration closest to the citizen, the one that we have sacrificed the most to accomplish and, therefore, our efforts must serve to improve the lives of our neighbors, "Ana Belén Castejón reiterated.
The limit of maximum indebtedness allowed by the Ministry of Finance is 110% and currently, the city of Cartagena is approximately 34%.
For this reason, the mayor, along with the rest of the members of the FEMP, has demanded that a Decree Law be approved to extend by 2018 the provision of the Budget Stability Law that enables the City of Cartagena and the other municipalities to allocate the 2017 surplus not only to debt amortization but also to financially sustainable investments.
"If we are fulfilling, and this City Council does it in a big way, we are going to demand that they allow us not only to allocate part of the surplus to investments, but also to point current spending, which also improves the quality of life of our citizens.
For example, that we can fix some of our streets or be able to execute an extraordinary cleaning of a nursery school, among many other things, "said Ana Belén Castejón.
"Only the determination and unity of the mayors, led by Abel Caballero, has made the minister react, who has understood that the request of the president of the FEMP was more than justified.
But this is only the beginning.
It is necessary that once and for all the financing of the Town Councils be addressed.
We need to regulate the tools and mechanisms that we have to finance ourselves, "Castejón stressed.
The mayor recalled that Abel Caballero already announced during his visit to Cartagena this summer that the unity of all the mayors was necessary to fight for the municipalities and to improve, once and for all, their financing.
MODIFICATION OF THE EXPENDITURE RULE
Likewise, the mayor has also joined the demand that the spending rule be modified so that the one-year budget does not have to be contingent on what was spent effectively in the previous year, but rather on what I had initially budgeted.
At present, if a 100% budget is not executed, the budget for the following year should be based on the actual expenditure that has been made, so it may be that the budget of one year is lower than the previous one, despite the fact that they have increased the income and that the debt has been reduced.
Castejón has taken advantage of his visit to Madrid to share ideas and projects with mayors from other municipalities such as Huelva, Seville or Ciudad Real.
Source: Ayuntamiento de Cartagena
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