Yesterday morning, the municipal council took place at Nice City Hall.
The day was expected to be long, as usual. And it was.
The conductor, Christian Estrosi, had a happy demeanor, having recently become a grandfather: “Nothing will take away my zen today.”
The first major topic on the table: the 2018 draft budget.
After four years of reduced general operating grants, the new five-year term opens on a more favorable note.
A first since 2012. Resources will be clear until 2020.
Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, is pleased and benefits from the Macron effect. Indeed, the President of the Republic is announcing a comprehensive reform of local taxation.
The contract that binds the mayors to the State is once again clear.
The 2018 draft budget now stands (excluding the appendixed budget) at 547 million euros in revenue for 525 million in expenses. The majority of the revenue is composed of taxes (365 million).
The increase in tax revenue, according to Philippe Pradal, results from the correlative increase in service products, particularly for road rights, urban furniture, and parking fees.
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For Christian Estrosi, from now on, the budget will revolve around investment.
“The nerve of war,” according to the mayor of Nice. Investment is “the employment of today and tomorrow, it’s everyone’s well-being, and Nice’s growth.”
The mayor of Nice commits to investing 85 million a year from 2018 to 2020.
An investment that will happen in stages. Four major axes of beautification of the city are prioritized.
The proximity card: 64.5 million euros for
– the construction of the central kitchen
– renovation work of the Corniche Fleurie and Ray Gorbella school groups
– The start of the extension work of the “l’eau vive” daycare
– the creation of the Ray dojo room
– The launch of the “western urban park”
– The competition fund for tramway lines 2 and 3
– The complete delivery of the “La Luna” villa
Proximity to give a new role to our neighborhood councils, implement a territorial parking and traffic plan, and support local commerce.
Security: 8.9 million
As part of a program until 2020, the city hall wants to continue developing its security and tranquility policy.
– The CCTV surveillance camera program will be deployed
– Public buildings will be secured through works
– Cliffs will be reinforced
– The future police station will be located in the St-Roch hospital premises
The training of the 130 municipal police recruits is ending. They will join the current ranks, with deployment underway in the field. During the year, an experiment will take place. Unarmed police officers will join the city’s schools for surveillance.
The third card concerns “Living Together”
In 2018, Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, wants to emphasize “living together.” An improvement possible through the rapprochement of faiths via culture, as well as associations.
A very important aspect, although the “generation objective” fundamental should not be forgotten, according to the mayor.
The mayor intends to organize the first youth assembly and include seniors in the development of a comprehensive project for their well-being in Nice.
Finally, the fourth major axis: Event Policy
The city intends to organize major national and international events. The 2018 Music Festival is part of it.
Three major facilities will be managed directly: the Victorine studios, the convention center, and Nikaia.
Purchasing power also remains at the heart of the mayor’s priorities
Another strong measure by the city mayor is implementing a reform on the habitation tax. Christian Estrosi wants to engage in a proactive policy in favor of the purchasing power of the people of Nice.
And other measures in the same sense should be added in the same areas
– Introducing half-hour free street parking. Differentiated pricing for different categories of users.
– For Sports: “Seniors in Shape” operation with the distribution of sports coupons, as well as an annual grant awarded to high-level athletes licensed in Nice clubs.
– For Families: applying rates based on parents’ income, granting a “childhood” compensation allowance, new activities and preferential rates in AnimaNice
– For Education: Reduced rates in school restaurants…
– For green spaces: the entrance to Phoenix Park will be 3 euros for Pass Museum cardholders
Taxation
The mayor confirms once again this year that the rates will not increase.
The property tax will remain stable for the 10th consecutive year (23.12%). The habitation tax will also remain at 21.10% compared to 21.33% in 2009. The tax on undeveloped land will decrease to 35.69% compared to 36.05% in 2009.
Stable rates, compared to other local authorities, are partly due to the “exemplary financial management”
Self-financing is heavily increasing to 49.3 million. A spectacular rise, according to Christian Estrosi, partly explained by a significant effort on operating expenses.
He wishes to go even further than what the programming law allows.
To achieve this, a reduction of 4 million in the administration’s “lifestyle” and engaging in new structural reforms.
The 2018 draft budget far from satisfying Patrick Allemand, who launched a real indictment…
What to tell you? You have been reduced to flipping pancakes with a gold coin in your pocket to close your budget if we believe your first deputy.
The first thing that strikes in this budget is that you persist in congratulating yourself in terms of tax pressure, insisting on the perfect stability of the rates while continuing to look for revenue in all directions, a field where you excel.
You have entered an ultra-liberal logic of billing municipal services at actual cost. This is what led me to protest strongly on behalf of my group against the scandalous increase in masonry fees for burials (+70%).
This is the strategy you have chosen to effectively tax the people of Nice: billing parents of students, families, athletes, etc. Already last year, these billings reached 42.7 million euros in 2017, an increase of nearly 5% compared to 2016. For 2018, it will be 46.8 million euros, an 8% increase. It’s considerable.
The second thing that strikes in this budget is how you plan to finance your 85 million euros of equipment spending, and I immediately come to the weight of property sales. To balance the investment budget, you use property sales each year.
Generally, these reached between 10 and 13 million euros per year. In 2014, you voted 23 million to finally achieve only 13? It’s the report from the Regional Chamber of Accounts that pointed it out. That didn’t discourage you from continuing on this path. Last year, you presented a sales plan of 28 million euros for 90 million euros in equipment spending!
This year, you break all records. You plan an exceptional property sales plan of 46 for 85 million in equipment spending. That means the main source of investment income is exceptional, and thus, random revenue. It required boldness!
All the more so as the logic would want with such a high amount of property sales, the equipment expenditures to increase: these sales could be understood if there was more investment, but that is not the case. The amount of equipment expenses actually drops by 90% and is stable at 85 million euros.
In fact, selling the heritage gives a bit of flexibility to a dreadfully tight budget. The City of Nice continues to sell its family jewels at an increasingly high pace.
Yes, the budget is tight.
A sadly symptomatic example is the budget for early childhood and family.
The operational budget for early childhood decreases from 38 to 34 million, a 10% decrease, with nearly a 13% decrease for personnel expenses. This is your response to the legitimate demands of a staff that, for the first time, went on strike with such force since 20 out of 27 municipal daycares were closed. They are telling you they can’t keep up anymore, that there will be problems because too many missions are entrusted to untrained staff. They are telling you that “the diaper is full,” they are sounding the alarm bell, and your answer is less 13% in personnel expenses.
It is not better regarding school life. The operating budgets allocated to school life decrease in the same proportions as early childhood: 10%, from 87 million to 79 million.
Moreover, several important clubs saw their objective agreements reduced, including CSN basketball, soccer, Nice stadium, OGCN, handball, ONN.
It’s an unprecedented situation: everywhere in France, the resources allocated to early childhood and youth are maintained because that is what allows betting on the future. It’s what shows a city has confidence in its future. In Nice, they decrease. Youth policy or social action also records small decreases.
And with such figures, you have the nerve to announce the holding of major youth assemblies! This budget negates your statements of intent on living together.
So it’s not only losers!
There are, in contrast, two operating budgets that increase, which are security and administration functioning. This 2018 budget dedicates a totally uninhibited political vision of ultra-security and an all-powerful administration. All operating expenses related to security rise inexorably, like every year.
This budget is the Reporty budget; it’s the budget for police officers in schools.
The political message of this budget is clear. It’s about retreating into oneself, means for childhood, education, and youth are being reduced, and there’s observation and control. Finally, it’s made to believe, because the statistics refute you. Your agitation compensates for your impotence because the number of burglaries exploded in 2017!
Nevertheless, the financial situation is so tight that pretense is no longer possible. It is worsening.
The report from the Regional Chamber of Accounts forecasted 450 million euros in debt in 2017; it was finally 497, and for 2018, you have passed the symbolic threshold of 500 million, 508 million exactly. That’s the amount of our collective’s debt.
It is an exorbitant amount, considering all the competence transfers to the Metropolis, which keeps rising and contradicts all your past forecasts.
In a way, I thank you for this budget because it is a budget of truth that reveals you for who you are and your convictions.
In exchange after exchange, each will remain on their positions, which will allow them to claim they are right.
