The City of Lausanne is counting on a deficit of 62.3 million francs in its 2025 budget. This includes new spending on day care for children with the creation of 330 places.
It is an “average” budget from previous years which was presented Tuesday by the trustee Grégoire Junod and the municipal official in charge of finances Florence Germond. It also reflects a certain “prudence”, knowing that the accounts are generally much better than expected, “roughly in balance since 2013”, recalled Grégoire Junod.
Although in continuity with past years, this 2025 budget presents an improvement of 14.7 million francs compared to that of 2024. This is explained in particular by “the rise in power” of the structural financial improvement plan. A plan initiated in 2022 and which, for its third version, has a favorable impact on the budget to the tune of 10.3 million.
According to this 2025 budget, expenses reach 2.25 billion, an increase of 57.5 million (+2.6%) compared to the previous budget. This growth is explained in particular by an increase in depreciation (27 million) and salary indexations (14 million).
Priority for day care
Costs are also increasing due to what remains a “central priority”, namely improving the provision of day care for children. The Municipality has been seeking to achieve its objective of “a place for every child” for several years and this is manifested, once again in this 2025 budget, by additional expenditure (+5.5 million). In detail, the Vaud capital plans to create 78 places for preschool and 252 for after-school next year.
In terms of staff, Lausanne has 71 more full-time equivalents (FTEs) in its 2025 budget, a large majority of which (63) are linked to the development of day care.
On the income side, they stand at 2.18 billion, or 59.7 million better (+2.8%) than in the previous budget. The evolution of tax revenues (+36.6 million) is particularly positive, proof of “a resilient and dynamic Lausanne economy.”
Record investments
Along with day care, the climate constitutes the other major axis of the Municipality. This translates into “historically high” investments: 325 million gross in total, including around 170 million for the climate. This amount covers planned investments for the renovation and extension of networks (in particular district heating), the sanitation of buildings or soft mobility.
Investment expenditure also includes significant sums for the water sector (71 million), IT (20 million), the eco-districts of the Métamorphose project (31 million) as well as school buildings and sports infrastructures (27 million).
The 2025 budget takes up “the fundamentals” of previous years, summarized Grégoire Junod. It makes it possible to support “a growing city” and, despite its deficit, manages to present “rigorous management” of costs, he said.
This budget, concocted by a Municipality largely dominated by the left (3 PS, 2 Vert-es, 1 POP, 1 PLR), is not to the taste of the PLR. In a press release, the Lausanne liberal-radicals regret that the additional income “does not serve to reduce the deficit or absorb the debt”. According to them, the executive follows the logic of “take more, spend more… and continue to run deficits.”
Yann Rossier with Keystone ATS
