The finance bill for 2023, presented on Monday, provides in particular for 210 million euros in global operating allocation for communities. An insufficient envelope to deal with inflation according to the association of mayors of France.
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This unexpected announcement, released on Twitter Monday September 26 in the middle of the afternoon while the finance bill (PLF) for 2023 had been presented with great fanfare in Bercy the same morning, will probably not change ‘Opinion local elected officials. “210 million euros in global operating endowment #DGF “will be allocated to local authorities, welcomed” their “minister, Caroline Cayeux. It is “a first for thirteen years, she still writes. 70 % of the municipalities will see their endowment maintained or increased”.
At the same time, the first delegate vice-president of the Association of Mayors of France, André Laignel, judged this PLF “overall calamitous”, specifying that the mayors will ask the parliamentarians to rewrite it completely. The body bringing together the departments (the ADF, assembly of the departments of France) is less severe, relating “some advances”.
Three “red lines” have been crossed, considers André Laignel. And one of them precisely concerns the DGF that Caroline Cayeux evokes in her tweet. All elected officials demanded that it follow inflation. It’s no. The 210 million announced by the minister are far from the account, estimates André Laignel, who anticipates a reduction in purchasing power of 1.2 billion euros for the municipalities due to inflation. Especially since the “safety net” voted in August will only apply in 2023, and would only concern “5,000” in 35,000.
reduction in purchasing power and effects perverted
The second hook concerns the abolition of the contribution on the added value of companies (CVAE). Elected officials are against. They consider that “it cuts the link between the territories and the economic world and it goes against an intelligent reindustrialisation policy”. This production tax, which benefits local communities, reports 8 billion euros per year. He will disappear in two stages, in 2023 and 2024.
Now, the PLF plans to “fully, sustainable and dynamic” compensation “: a part of VAT, which progresses more strongly than the CVAE, specifies the government. But, for André Laignel, the planned modalities will produce perverse effects, “enormous distortions” between the territories. The ADF is, again, less severe, seeing “a relative satisfaction point” in the calculation method.
Last stumbling block: the government asks local elected officials to participate in the recovery of the country’s public finances. However, if the ADF “agrees” on the idea of working with the State, the mayors consider that there is “no objective reason” to this requirement. “We do not participate in the deficit of France,” recalls André Laignel. As for the debt, that of the communities, “we are funding it ourselves”. The mayors recall, moreover, that they have already been “punctuated” by 46 billion euros since 2014.
The “confidence pact” proposed by Bercy in his budget project to achieve this is no more suitable for mayors. The objective is to strongly encourage communities to spend half a point less than inflation, each year. Even if it means cutting into their investment capacities. “Aberrant”, decides André Laignel.