The senators made a gesture towards local authorities on Saturday by reducing by more than one billion euros the effort they were asking for in the government budget.
Right in the middle of consideration of the 2025 budget proposal, the Senate came to the rescue of local elected officials by defeating the government on some key measures.
The Chamber of Territories, always very conciliatory with the communities, thus unanimously opposed the reduction of the VAT Compensation Fund (FCTVA), a system to support communities in their investment expenses.
The Government’s initial measure, which would contribute 800 million to the State, sought to review both the base and the type of this fund, focusing mainly on the investments already committed in 2023 and 2024.
It is an “unfair measure because it affects all communities indiscriminately” and “hits” the “virtuous circle” of local investments, alarmed centrist senator Bernard Delcros.
“Unfair” measure
On the left, several voices were even more severe against this system proposed by the Barnier government. “If we want local elected officials not to run again tomorrow, let’s keep it up! We are not far from it,” worries communist Cécile Cukierman.
Michel Barnier, who will probably be threatened next week by a motion of censure on the series of budget texts for 2025, had announced in recent days to elected officials that he was willing to partially reverse this measure, eliminating it only retroactively.
That is, “more than 80% of the 800 million proposed,” the Minister of Public Accounts, Laurent Saint-Martin, insisted during the session, taking care not to “burden local investments.”
The senators also approved a reform of this FCTVA to allow the funds in question to be paid in the same year as community expenses. These must wait two years before being compensated under the current system.
Despite intense debates and requests from all parties in the chamber, the Senate did not want to index the global operating grant (DGF), allocated to local authorities, to inflation.
However, it adopted a socialist amendment to complete this FGD with 290 million euros, to avoid overloading all territories with two other measures included in the budget: the increase in the rural solidarity grant (150 million) and the solidarity grant urban (140 million). million).
Finally, the Senate decided to index the territorial continuity subsidy (DCT) paid to Corsica to inflation. The government proposed an allocation of 50 million euros, but only on an exceptional basis for 2025.
Source: BFM TV
