In this climate of uncertainty, is the City of Caen moving too quickly to establish its budget in 2025?

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The guard room of the Town Hall of Caen (Calvados) was the setting for the last municipal concert of the year this Monday, December 16, 2024. A real marathon for local elected officials, who spoke for more than six hours! It must be said that a big piece was on the program: the debate on budgetary orientations for 2025. An inevitably important moment in the life of a city, since it is the first formal stage of the budgetary cycle.

What effort is required of local authorities?

Except that the opposition would have liked it not to take place that evening and to be postponed. While the greatest uncertainty still reigns at the top of the state, the Bayrou government does not promise much more stability than that of Michel Barnier.

And in the meantime, the Cities, Departments and other Regions are still waiting to know the extent of the efforts that will be asked of them. This is precisely the problem raised by the Citoyens à Caen group, led by Xavier le Coutour, Béatrice Hovnanian and Laurence Maunory.

The uncertainty over the 2025 state budget is not without consequences on the budgetary calendar of local authorities. Michel Barnier’s draft Finance Law 2025 planned to reduce payments to local authorities by 5 billion euros (…) Nothing remains today and the next government will be able to make very different choices.

“Major financial unknowns”

Xavier le Coutour summarizes the situation: “Major financial unknowns hang over our decisions. »

Why impose such a rushed debate? The law authorizes us to do this until February 16, when we will know the financial rules of the game imposed by the government.

Mayor Aristide Olivier accepted this decision not to postpone the debate. The worrying situation in France was not enough to call it into question.

On the contrary, he sees it rather as an opportunity to highlight “our clear and constant budgetary guidelines, which allow us to have the room to maneuver to invest massively for the future of the city”.

Faced with the “climate of uncertainty”, the councilor advances the certainty of the investments envisaged by the City. “That’s concrete. »

Through our careful management for 10 years, we have given ourselves the means to improve the daily lives of Caen residents. We have never invested so much.

And to conclude: “Our fundamentals are healthy for a city of 100,000 inhabitants and much better than the national average. »

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