The former Minister of Public Accounts points out the role of local elected officials in the slippage of the public deficit

Le Figaro Bordeaux

It's not me, it's the others. Cooked for almost two hours by the Senate Finance Committee, the former Minister of Public Accounts Thomas Cazenave wanted to partly blame local authorities for the degraded situation of public finances. The ex-minister, deputy for Gironde and elected opposition official in Bordeaux, was heard this Thursday, after Bruno Le Maire, as part of an information mission on the drift in public accounts.

In front of several senators, Thomas Cazenave affirmed that state spending would “decrease in 2024”and estimated that “the cause of the deterioration of the public deficit is revenues which have not been met and a very rapid increase in expenditure by local authorities”while “State expenditure is held to account”. According to the former minister, “what must focus our collective effort are the revenue forecasts, which have not at all met their objectives and which explain three-quarters of the deterioration, the rest is community spending”.

“It’s not a value judgment”

An assertion that was not very well received by the senators. “You add vinegar to the wound, and with insistence, by explaining that the degradation comes mainly from communities”retorts Jean-François Husson, senator (ex-Les Républicains) from Meurthe-et-Moselle and general budget rapporteur in the Senate. “I never said that the main cause of the deterioration of the deficit was the local authorities, it is the second reason”insists Thomas Cazenave, facing a rather doubtful panel.

Senator Claude Raynal, chairman of the Finance Committee, did not seem convinced by this argument either. “You are telling us about a difference between an estimate made by Bercy and reality, that means that the estimate was quite simply false”judges the socialist parliamentarian. “It is curious to put on the same level a subject which is managed and one which is not controlled.” Claude Raynal also recalls that 2024, “two years before the municipal election »is a “year at the top of the cycle” for cities.

Thomas Cazenave persists and signs, affirming that “the financing needs of communities increased from 5 billion to 20 billion”. The MP emphasizes that “in the history of accounting by the general directorate of public finances, it has been at least 25 years since we had seen such a need for financing”specifying that “it’s not a value judgment”. “I never said that local elected officials were bad managers”cautiously repeats the Bordeaux elected official, recalling however that the public deficit is not only that of the State, but also that of territorial administrations and social security. “I'm just saying that these decisions [des élus locaux] weighed on the public deficit much more than was expected.”