The ceilings are soaring for the budget of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, with a debt approaching 2 billion euros, the president of the region announced this Thursday, November 21, reported The Parisian.
300 million additional euros
The debt of the department, already weighing 1.6 billion euros will exceed 1.9 billion euros by 2029coming close to a deficit of 2 billion euros. An additional 300 million euros should be included in the municipal budget. “A maximum”according to Stéphane Troussel (PS). To date, only 90 million additional euros have been included in next year's budget.
For the head of the department, there are not “fifty solutions” to maintain the level of investment of his community, including in the ecological transition. “I prefer to have a controlled debt with the banks rather than with our children who already blame us for the ecological debt”he argued.
The right worried by the “budgetary slippage”
Comments which provoked the ire of his opponent, Philippe Dallier. “Who other than our children will repay this debt to the banks”he remarked during the municipal council, reports Le Parisien. The latter, moreover, recalls that Stephane Troussel had “promised in 2014 not to exceed 1.4 billion in debt. In 2019 it reached 1.63 billion and now he says we can put 300 million more? How much debt can you believe you can get into without consequences? In three years, the department has burned through the funds”; he protests.
Especially since the opponent considers that this forecast is “very optimistic, based on very uncertain revenue forecasts, for example on VAT and not to mention the consequences of the PLF”.
And “blissful optimism”
For the right-wing elected official, the debt will unsurprisingly exceed 2 billion euros. In question? “Blissful optimism” on the expected revenue from transfer taxes for valuable consideration (DMTO) and personnel expenses, largely underestimated by the management of the department. The Olympic Games, too, have greatly increased the department's already colossal debt of several million euros. And “because there was no need to spoil the party, the announcement of this slip-up was delayed”he castigated.
The real estate crisis underestimated?
An analysis that the elected socialist contests, accusing the right of being “obsessed” on the subject. “At the end of 2023, we were not the only ones having difficulty analyzing the violence of the real estate crisis”he recognizes, while the loans taken out by their neighboring departments such as Val-de-Marne or Hauts-de-Seine “will amount to nearly a billion euros over two years”also recalling that the department's debt only represents “0,04 %” of France's debt, estimated at more than 3,200 billion euros.
The debt reduction capacity increases from 9 to 23 years
The elected official does not intend to give up his projects due to the budgetary situation. An ambition which will increase the debt reduction capacity of the departmental council from nine and a half years to almost twenty-three years. “This is unheard of”commented Philippe Dallier.
Stéphane Troussel is not worried, the department's debt reduction capacity has already been at 22 years, without going out of business. “This figure must be confirmed in the next administrative account […] It will increase but it may vary depending on our level of savings which may also depend on exceptional revenues.”. Furthermore, an independent rating agency gave its community an A+ rating.
