The tax increase planned by the Mataró City Council (Maresme) will be around 5 euros per month on average per taxpayer. The current economic situation, marked by having to obligatorily assume the salary increases established by law for municipal workers, which represent an increase in the amount of 2,989,203.53 euros; the increase in the financial burden due to having to pay higher interest rates for loans, which represents an increase of 2,054,662.49; The adaptation of contract prices to the CPI and the increase in the cost of supplies, which have risen considerably in recent years given the energy crisis and the consequent rise in inflation, forces the Mataró City Council to increase the fiscal pressure to continue offering the high level of benefits it provides to citizens.
However, the initial budget of the City Council will once again be the largest in history, 164 million, 5% higher than the previous one, and will allow it to continue focusing on priority policies such as security or cleanliness, apart from starting some unique future projects marked by the Mataró 2030 Urban Agenda.
The main destination of the expenditure will be social protection and promotion with 18.4 million euros, of which 5.5 million will be for the Home Care Service, which will have 300,000 euros more than in 2023, followed by 18 million for cleaning and garbage collection and 17.7 in security and civil protection.
The increase in taxes will affect the rate of the Real Estate Tax (IBI), the capital gains, the rates of fees for the provision of household and commercial waste management services, and the increase in the CPI will be applied foreseen for this exercise at the rates in general. It is expected that the economic impact of this increase will be around 5 million euros.
The Mataró City Council has approved the tax ordinances for 2024 with a significant increase in the waste management rate. In general, this tax will increase by 19.7%, an increase that affects 89% of the population. In neighborhoods where selective collection systems have been implemented, such as mobile selective collection in the center or door-to-door collection in urbanizations, the increase is variable depending on the triage rates. In these areas, the increase in the rate will be 7% for citizens who recycle best and may increase up to 41% for those who do not participate in selective collection.
The approval of the ordinances includes the already announced increase in the IBI of 7% and an increase of 3.6%, in accordance with the CPI, of the rest of the rates. Comparative studies in relation to other similar municipalities in the province of Barcelona show that Mataró is below the average, both in terms of the average receipt, the rate applied and in the relationship between the tax pressure from the IBI and the average family income. Currently, the City Council is applying a rate of 0.5955%, which represents only 48.41% of the potential amount of the tax, that is, it is applying a rate that corresponds to less than half of the maximum that could apply. The proposal for 2024 represents an increase in the tax rate of 7%, placing it at a rate of 0.6372%, so the average receipt will go from 407 to 432 euros. The increase in this tax is proposed to be done in a decreasing manner and in 2025 the increase will be 5% and in 2026 and 2027 it will be 4%.
Capital gain. The proposal goes from the current rate of 27 to 30%, the maximum limit allowed by law and which is the rate that 15 of the 19 municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants in the province of Barcelona have.
In the case of fees for the provision of household and commercial waste management services, it is proposed that they be adapted to what is regulated in Law 7/2022, of April 8, on Waste and Contaminated Soils for a Circular Economy. The new regulation requires establishing specific, differentiated and non-deficit rates, which promote payment systems per generation, that is, mechanisms through which citizens contribute based on the waste they actually generate and selectively separate at source, which encourages its reduction and separation.
The proposal presents a differentiated tariff range that implies an increase in the general tariff of 19.7%, while for taxpayers with innovative systems (door-to-door and mobile selective collection) with a much higher selective collection than in the rest of the city, the increase would be between 7%, if one participates in the model appropriately, or 41% in the worst case, if one does not participate.
Increase equivalent to the CPI. Due to the inflationary context of 9-10% in the last two years (2022-2023), it has been proposed to increase the rates of the rest of the rates by 3.6%, equivalent to this year’s CPI forecast, with the objective of not increase the gap between income and cost of services.
Apart from this increase, the modification of the tax ordinances also provides for their adaptation to the new legal regulations, incorporating improvements and modifications in their wording and structure for better management of public law taxes and income.
The municipal plenary session voted to provisionally approve the modification of the tax ordinances for the 2024 financial year. The process of approving the budget and the ordinances are being carried out jointly, with the intention of having them definitively approved on December 21.
