The statements by the departmental president Eric Ciotti, expressing his satisfaction following the Court of Auditors’ report from last October 14th, do not find only admirers.
The president of PRG 06, Jean-Cristophe Picard, while acknowledging this judgment, questions the validity of this good management which he attributes more to a tax increase than to expenditure control.
It is true that while numbers are exact by definition, their interpretation, between what is said and unsaid, can lend itself to various conclusions as proven by the statement from the president of PRG 06 below:
Éric Ciotti, the president of the General Council, held a press conference to congratulate himself on a favorable comment on the control of the payroll in the Alpes-Maritimes department, featured in the Court of Auditors’ report titled “Local Public Finances,” presented on October 14, 2014.
But, very curiously, Éric Ciotti does not emphasize another section of the report which also pertains to the Alpes-Maritimes: “In view of their fiscal resources (before equalization), the level of wealth of departments shows relatively moderate inequalities. In 2013, the standard deviation between departments was 13.6% of the average. However, the dispersion was significant at the extremes since 12 departments had fiscal resources per inhabitant exceeding the median by more than 25%. These twelve departments are, in ascending order, Hautes-Pyrénées, Alpes-Maritimes, Hauts-de-Seine, Savoie, Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Corse-du-Sud, Martinique, Guyana, Mayotte, Guadeloupe, and Réunion.”
Éric Ciotti’s silence on this point is likely due to his modesty. Yet, he would have been justified in boasting about this result. He indeed was the one who had a 15% increase in the departmental tax (residence tax, property tax on built and non-built land, and professional tax) voted from 2009 onwards!
The department’s tax resources are expected to increase further since Éric Ciotti has just had an 18% increase in transfer duties voted, effective from March 1, 2014.
Jean-Christophe Picard, President of PRG 06
