It is not very often that the local administration succeeds in the courts to enforce the obligations of higher institutions, but this is what has happened with a group of councils that have been litigating for years for the collection of subsidies corresponding to the homes of ‘municipal children. The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia has ruled that the Generalitat must pay “immediately” the money it owes, in compliance with a 2017 ruling.
The 26 litigating councils, grouped in the Forum of Mayors for the Education of Catalonia, will collect 24 million euros corresponding to the subsidies stipulated in three years (2012 to 2015) for the students of municipally owned kindergartens: 1,300 euros per child and course In addition, when the transfer takes place, interest on late payment will be calculated from the ruling in favor of the councils of December 20, 2017, which goes up to 3.7 million euros.
The mayors accuse the Generalitat of having tried to delay the payment and of having put the councils in an “obstacle race”, with appeals to the courts and with a legislative modification “through the back door” of the Budget Support law of 2020, with which a period of ten years is set to effect the payment of the debts.
As part of a policy of budget cuts, the department led by Irene Rigau stopped paying the agreements with the town councils for the financing of nursery schools in 2012, a circumstance that significantly reduced the economy of the municipalities. The minister acknowledged that these grants were diverted to charter schools so that they could meet their workers’ payrolls.
The first framework agreements of the Generalitat with the councils for kindergartens were signed in 2005 (1,800 euros per pupil and year) following a popular legislative initiative of the previous year which had advocated the creation of 30,000 places in municipal centers in Catalonia (40,000 were created in 5 years).
With the non-compliance with the agreements, the councils looked for other ways. In this sense, sources from the Diputació de Barcelona explain that this institution allocated 170 million euros to the municipalities in seven years (2015 to 2021) to prevent kindergartens from closing. By virtue of a framework agreement with the municipal entities, Education reinstated the transfers for the 2021-22 academic year: 1,600 euros per student/year. (There are around 600 municipal kindergartens in Catalonia and each place, according to experts’ calculations, has an annual cost of 6,000 euros.
The resolution affects 26 municipalities: Barberà del Vallès, Camprodon, Canovelles, Castellar del Vallès, Castellbell i el Vilar, Cerdanyola, Lleida, Montmeló, Montseny, Olesa de Montserrat, Pineda de Mar, Pont de Vilomara, el Prat, Ripollet, RubÃ, Sant Adrià de Besòs, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Sant Cebrià de Vallalta, Sant Celoni, Sant Esteve Sesrovires, Sant Llorenç d’Hortons, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, Tarragona, Vendrell and Viladecans. The amounts they must receive (without interest) fluctuate between the 3.4 million from Lleida and the 10,400 euros claimed by the small municipality of Montseny (Vallès Oriental) for eight students.
