Christian Estrosi hinted at it a few days ago by announcing that he would “naturally be a candidate for his own succession in 2020 (or 2021) in the municipal elections.
While his potential rival Eric Ciotti is in “reflection,” he wants to be in action!
Yesterday, after a meeting with the mayors of the Metropolis, he announced a three-year investment plan worth 420 million, aiming to boost the local economy (6000 jobs) and generate 15 million euros in tax revenue. Now the metropolis is at the heart of the public economy and the lever for its development.
If you read the list of infrastructure interventions, it resembles a sort of distribution of the “loaves and fishes” reminiscent of evangelical memory.
Each mayor, of course, presented their “desiderata,” and the President of the Metropolis’s arbitrations aimed not to exclude or displease anyone, mixing needs and merits since, in many cases, they are just simple maintenance operations.
But given the state of finances heavily affected by the expenses of tramway lines 2 and 3, they had to sell some family jewels to finance themselves. One year after proclaiming the intangibility of maintaining local public shares in the airport management company, the Metropolis follows the Departmental Council’s example and will sell its shares to achieve revenue of 100 million that will help reduce taxes.
In addition to that, a new 6.4% property tax for landowners will be implemented starting in October. The cost for each owner will range from 3 to 29 euros per month depending on the 49 municipalities.
But this “slap” will be partially compensated by a caress! The household waste collection tax will decrease by 1 point, saving up to 65 euros per year for tenants.
Investment, debt, tax, the political agenda has overheated around this triangle with exchanges of blame and responsibility between Eric Ciotti, who didn’t wait long to throw some barbs at his adversary (“when one is right-wing, one doesn’t raise taxes”), before being rebuffed by Christian Estrosi who reminded him that he himself had done the same in 2009 by maximizing the transfer duties rate and a partial transfer of the Departmental Council’s debt to the Metropolis as part of the transfer of powers from one local authority to another.
But at the time, the two politicians were “buddies,” and thus everything was fine and going for the best!
We’re waiting for what’s next… which certainly won’t lack spice!
