Cold shower. The Ardennes Department will not escape the savings measures imposed by the State to complete its 2025 budget. Five billion euros, including 2.2 billion to be found from the Departments.
I refuse to make our fellow citizens pay for the mistakes of others”
This is what the departmental advisors gathered this Friday, November 8, 2024 at the Hôtel du Département to discuss the 2025 budgetary guidelines.
Thus, the community's revenue will suffer from a reduction in VAT reimbursement on both investments and operations. Its rate will increase from 16.4% to 14.85% in January 2025.
Reduction in VAT, increase in SMIC and RSA
Two small points which equate to around a million euros less on the revenue side. To which is added the end of the exceptional financing of the personalized autonomy allowance (APA).
At the same time, expenses will be on the rise with an increase in agents’ retirement contributions, “ we are talking about 4%, which will increase the payroll by 1.3 million euros over the full year », explains President (LR) Noël Bourgeois.
The increase in the minimum wage in November will represent a surplus of 230,000 euros, while the elected official already anticipates an increase in the RSA in 2025. “ We hear about an increase of 1.9% in April, even if the number of beneficiaries has fallen, and we do not know what the future will hold, this will weigh all the more. »
« The finance bill has not yet been voted on, it will be on December 19. I remain cautious but if it is applied as is, it would once again be the Departments which suffer, particularly those most in difficulty. We no longer have fiscal autonomy, we are asphyxiated and on state drip, we are at the end of the system. »
Aid of 5 million euros
This scissor effect, characterized by a new turn of the screw associated with imposed spending, today leads to a simple observation: “ We're going to have to checkout “, lamented the president.
A situation all the more surprising since on the budgetary front, the Ardennes had reason to hope to slip through the drops. Unlike its counterparts, the Department had been spared the 2% levy decreed by the State as part of the national budgetary effort due to its fragility.
Moreover, he had managed to get exceptional aid of 5 million euros for this 2025 budget, giving a little breathing space to operating revenues. Remember that the Ardennes are ranked tenth among the poorest departments in France and have an unemployment rate above the average.
Maintaining aid to associations and the level of investment
Joined by the opposition – Dominique Ruelle (DVG, Revin) castigating “ the planned agony of the Departments » – the president evoked a feeling of injustice.
« I refuse to make our fellow citizens pay for the mistakes of others (…), he insisted. Should the APA plan be reduced? Funding for people with disabilities? Watch voluntary actions? »
Answer: no. The level of investment between 35 and 40 million euros will be maintained, as will voluntary actions and social spending which are even increasing.
The budget will be voted on Friday December 13, 2024.
