During the City Council meeting on Monday, November 24, the budget orientation debate (DOB) for 2015 will take place. In the absence of a true opposition within this council, Christian Estrosi will have it easy by developing two arguments:
The first by invoking the responsibility of the State with the dramatic reduction in global operating grants (DGF).
And the second, the fact that “he” takes into account the expectations of the population by… lowering taxes!
The people of Nice have the right to know what is happening and being decided at the city council. Out of respect for them, with my partners from the Left Front and the “Nice l’Humain d’abord” list, we are deciphering the upcoming announcements.
– On the responsibility of the State, it’s a reality. This touches on the true meaning of the government’s choices, those of austerity, the great austerity. A single figure, that of the reduction of the DGF, between 2012 and 2017 it will decrease in Nice from 101 million euros to 65 million. A catastrophic reduction at a time when needs during a crisis are increasingly significant (solidarity…). This logic is that of a government that has chosen to support finance rather than combat it.
Two examples: employer social contribution fraud amounts to 20 billion euros.
Fiscal exile amounts to between 60 and 80 billion euros per year with the benevolence of banks and the European Commission…
- On Nice: Christian Estrosi is preparing to announce a reduction in the rates of the housing tax and the property tax on undeveloped land. It’s a true intellectual fraud, for two reasons:
Firstly, the effective reduction in rates is in the order of a thousandth, going from 21.33% to 21.31% for the housing tax and from 36.09% to 36.05% for the property tax on undeveloped land.
This decrease will have no impact for many because the Treasury already rounds down to the nearest euro.
Secondly, the reduction of the general allowance for the primary residence from 15% to 10% will, on the contrary, result in a significant increase in taxes actually paid.
The proof is that the expected revenue for local taxation in 2015 is 281.5 million euros compared to 268 million in 2014 and 263 million in 2013. An increase of more than 13.5 million euros, or more than 5%. An increase significantly higher than the revaluation of the assessment bases voted by the parliament (+0.9%). The mechanical application of this revaluation would have brought the local tax revenue to 270 million.
The difference between this figure and the actual expected revenue (281.5) is 11.5 million euros. This is the result of the reduction of the general allowance rate!
But the increases do not stop there:
Thus, the revenue from the electricity tax (1) jumps to 7.65 million expected for 2015, an increase of 3.65 million. It’s an increase in dubious discretion. If last year in the 2014 DOB document the mayor congratulated himself that this tax did not increase, this year he only indicates the expected revenue without even mentioning that of the previous year. This is likely in the hope that no one will notice….Failed!
Another increase, the section modestly named: “products derived from service pricing.” The contributions paid by users for public services should amount to 36.5 million, an increase of 6 million from 2014.
This 20% increase is paid for by users and includes invoicing for activities related to the reform of school rhythms for 1.4 million euros and all future increases in public rates.
In total, for the 2015 budget, the increases for the people of Nice represent 23.15 million euros, of which more than 20 million are the result of decisions by C. Estrosi.
It’s a double penalty, that of governmental austerity and the management choices of C. Estrosi.
Other choices are possible:
- At the national level, these are all the proposals that we support on taxation and the fight against austerity policies.
- At the local level (non-exhaustive list…):
We are in favor of a 20% increase in the housing tax for secondary residences, of which there are 28,000 in Nice.
Free after-school activities, currently charged to families, causing a de facto inequality.
An audit on “economic development aid” in terms of, for example, utility for job creation. For the city of Nice alone, 45 million euros are reported on this item for the period 2015-2020.
Finally, the questioning of costly projects like the tunnel for line 2……
