Par
Florent Lemaire
Published on
Nov. 5, 2024 at 7:30 a.m.
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The file was not on the agenda of the recent plenary session of the Department of Eurebut he will have occupied the debates at length, from the opening of the meeting. THE finance bill (PLF) for 2025, presented by the government on October 10, caused local authorities to react.
Monday October 14, the Normandy Region expressed its fears. The speech was hardly different in the hemicycle of the Department of Eure. To try to reduce the public deficit, the Prime Minister is asking local authorities in particular an effort of at least 5 billion euros. For Eure, the PLF would lead to €22 million in additional savings, in addition to the efforts that the community was already planning for 2025 (€6.8 million in operation and €5.7 million in investment). “This is not tenable”, decides the president of the Department, Alexandre Rassaërt.
Do not penalize “good students”
The motion of the elected representatives of its majority, unveiled and adopted on Friday October 18, certainly agrees with Michel Barnier's observation “that the State must break with deficit budgets and massive debt”, and with the method that he advocates (“respect, listening and dialogue”).
This 'respect' must apply to our Department. Year after year since 2015, we have presented solid budgets, with controlled debt and carried out several savings plans.
“In terms of method, public performance requires relying on local autonomy and responsibility, by not penalizing the good students of public management of which our Department is a part”, still insists the motion of Ensemble pour l 'Eure.
Aid and subsidies not guaranteed in 2025
The main fear of Alexandre Rassaërt and his majority is having to decline “massively” public investment. Without delay, the president of Eure sent an email to all mayors of the department and the association presidents supported by the department “to warn them to exercise caution in setting up their 2025 budgets since in the state of the 2025 PLF, the Department is not able to guarantee its contributions and subsidies”.
The motion was not adopted unanimously. Alexandre Rassaërt did not catch the hand extended by Marc-Antoine Jamet who wanted to amend the text of the departmental majority to result in a motion from all elected officials. “The time requires a union, the Eure could have done it,” the leader of the group L’Eure unites us will regret afterwards.
No joint motion
The fact remains that the elected representatives of the opposition share, in substance, the same observation – and the same opposition to the PLF – as those of the majority. “Local authorities cannot pay for the State’s mistakes,” declared the mayor of Val-de-Reuil.
For his part, Arnaud Levitre, for the L'Avenir en Partage group (whose motion was rejected), believes that the PLF “risks dealing a fatal blow to our local public services, already weakened by previous decisions. […] This directly threatens the ability of communities to maintain essential services, particularly in rural areas and the most deprived neighborhoods. Local authorities, which cannot present unbalanced budgets unlike the State, are subject to increasing financial burdens, with compensation promised by the State, which is not only insufficient, but often opaque and illegible.”
The “crucial” role of the Senate
Alexandre Rassaërt calls for “a real pact of responsibility between communities and the State, based on the model of the Cahors contract” (which associates communities with the control of public spending). The President of the Department also plans to write to the senators (chamber where the Prime Minister's party is in the majority), who would, according to him, have “a crucial role” to play in the evolution of the PLF and its vote.
“The State is thus adding worry to uncertainty! »
Guy Lefrand also stepped up to the plate against the finance bill which provides for a saving of 5 billion at the expense of local authorities. “5 billion!” This is more than the budget devoted by the State to its general and territorial administration. As if the Government was counting on communities to finance its decentralized administration, for a year, without questioning itself, and without taking into account the impact on local services and on investments in favor of the territories” protests the mayor d'Évreux who, following Hervé Morin, denounced “a state lie”. “The State accuses communities of being poorly managed and places its delay and lack of decision on local budgets. This lie deserves to be denounced with the greatest firmness, and dismantled with all the necessary explanations. We will work on this in the coming weeks, so that everyone takes their responsibilities.”
In Évreux, according to calculations by Guy Lefrand, the forecasts of the 2025 finance bill weigh more than 1.3 million euros on the 2025 budget. “If they were voted on as they are by Parliament, we would lose in less €355,000 in grants and FCTVA, seeing our personnel costs increase by almost a million euros (CNRACL and increase in the minimum wage).”
On the urban side, the evolution of the FCTVA, the DRCTP and the freezing of VAT correspond for the 2025 budget to almost 2 million euros less (loss of income or direct impact). Personnel costs further increased by €756,000 (CNRACL and increase in the minimum wage). To be completed with the creation of a reserve fund, a real compulsory levy on local budgets, which would cost more than 1.6 million for EPN.
The residents of Évreux and its surrounding area will see their budgets cut by 5.656 million euros! Not to mention the impacts of the PLF in the 73 other municipalities of the agglomeration.
“These decisions are brutal and unilateral: they will permanently undermine our autonomy and our investment capacity. These budgetary forecasts are alarming, and it is important that the population hears how the State is unfairly placing the weight of its inconsistency on cities and intercommunal communities.”
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