The approval of Barcelona’s budgets will be the first litmus test for Jaume Collboni’s government. Although formally the negotiations to move forward with the municipal accounts will begin after the summer, the fourth deputy mayor and head of the macro-area of ??Economy, Finance and Economic Promotion, Jordi Valls, has already met unofficially with all municipal groups, except Vox. On the table, a continuationist proposal in terms of social expenditure, more restrictive in terms of ordinary expenditure and which proposes the modification of measures that have been controversial, such as the reservation of 30% of new developments or rehabilitations for social housing.
The councilor has already sat down with the representatives of the parties to put measures and expectations on the table, and in some cases, even a calendar. “I don’t have instructions to prioritize one party or another, the political map of Catalonia and Spain is very moving and this obviously conditions things a lot”, recognized Jordi Valls during a recent interview with La Vanguardia, “but the structure of the budget it has elements of continuity in the aspects that we believe have worked”, he adds.
There will be no cuts in social spending, “but perhaps we will introduce elements of co-responsibility or specific elements of fiscal pressure”, he adds. He believes that Barcelona is not at the tax limit, “but we should talk about how we spend the money”.
Precisely, the clearest message that has been transmitted to the rest of the Consistory parties is the desire to reduce ordinary expenditure in order to maintain the investment capacity of recent years. Regarding the debt, the Barcelona City Council is far from a compromised situation, but it will grow slightly, “it will go from 30% to 37%, because the debt of the Housing Institute has been consolidated, which rises to 300 million”, he points out.
Other elements that can favor the support of one party or the other will be the review of the measure which implies that the promoters must transfer 30% of the flats to official housing, which was approved by BComú with the support of the PSC. “The question is whether it has worked and I honestly think it hasn’t, because it has managed to get the private sector to develop its activity”, acknowledges Jordi Valls, so instead of the transfer he considers it more effective to introduce the element of monetization and capitalization of the measure to build social housing. “We defend the 30%, but modifications must be made because otherwise the private sector will not go for work and will not accompany in this process”.
With a government in a clear minority (the Catalan socialists have 10 of the 41 councilors) and inevitable pacts, Valls does not specify the pact preferences: Bcomú, Trias per Barcelona? “With the party with which I see consistency – he insists – in the end with a budget it’s about convincing, and there are political factors that I can no longer control”.
In the section on investments, two points are clearly determined: the coverage of the Dalt roundabout and the acceleration of the works on the Rambla, “plus other things that will accompany us and that we will specify”. Things that can favor various complicities.
