At the start of the year, the president of the Haute-Garonne Departmental Council, Sébastien Vincini, returns to the 2025 outlook and announces a balanced budget despite the obligation to the economy. An effort that will not be made without concessions…
“We will be where we are expected!” » This is how Sébastien Vincini, president of the Haute-Garonne Departmental Council, launches the new year. In this period when “the political, economic and social situation in our country is worrying”, he wants to reassure that the community will maintain its course and its ambitions. But it will not be without effort. The idea is therefore to refocus the Department on its essential missions to achieve the 164 million euros in savings it must make, while remaining efficient. “We must demonstrate the greatest rigor in the use of each public fundin our own functioning as in that of establishments and actors of social action”.
A bad…
Financial rigor which involves in particular the elimination of nearly 500 positions of contract workers, announced last November. A social plan that is still relevant today, as Sébastien Vincini explained this Wednesday, January 8: “This choice is painful but necessary to maintain our ambitions. If we wish to continue to ensure the good reception of new inhabitants in our territory, to ensure the solidarity and security of all, we must invest in new colleges, in the proper functioning of public services, in ecological bifurcation… And this does not East possible only by controlling our budget, particularly operating. » As a reminder, the payroll of the Haute-Garonne Departmental Council represents 253 euros per inhabitant, when the national average is 200.
Symbolically, the Department will also skip the International Agricultural Show, no longer organize large receptions with unlimited petits fours, and has canceled its wishes to the population. “Every euro must be considered and justified,” argues the president of the community. Of the more important trade-offs will be revealed during the budgetary orientation debate which will take place on January 29.
…for good
Concessions which allow Sébastien Vincini to announce “the presentation and the vote ofa sincere and balanced budget next March for Haute-Garonne.” By controlling its expenses, and without announcing any major expensive plan, the Department intends to continue its mandate project, without abandoning any public policy: “ All commitments that we took in 2024 and that we will take in 2025 will be held, to the nearest euro », commits the elected official.
Starting with the implementation of educational policy of the community with the continuation of the social diversity program in colleges, the fight against school bullying and for equality between girls and boys, learning citizenship, the “100% homemade” plan which provides for a totally organic and local food in all colleges by 2028… At the same time, galloping demographics require, the Department is committed to the renovation and creation of establishments: “We will inaugurate, in the coming weeks, the rehabilitation from the college of Pont-Jumeaux. Then, by 2030, five middle schools will be renovated and three new ones will be built. »
Maintained and concrete investments
Regarding social policythe community is extending the redeployment of Solidarity Houses (MDS) and will launch studies this year with a view to renovating the Departmental Child and Family Center, which welcomes minors who need to be sheltered in an emergency. Next March, the Women's House, aimed at providing multidisciplinary care for women who have suffered violence, from reception to reconstructive surgery, will be inaugurated. The Departmental Council is the co-funder, alongside the Toulouse University Hospital.
On the ecology side too, Sébastien Vincini is committed : “At the end of January, I will meet the members of the Citizens' Assembly who worked for 16 months on the issue of ecological bifurcation and gave us a report. We will respond to their proposals at the end of the month. » With the same perspective, the Department will create a unique and unprecedented body: an independent scientific council, which will scrutinize all of the community's projects.
Thus, for the president of the Department of Haute-Garonne, rigor does not necessarily mean stopping investmentson the contrary, but the latter will be carefully chosen: “We will remain an essential partner of the municipalities in their investments (crèches, schools, drinking water, sanitation and cultural and sports facilities). We will continue our major investments in the territories such as the Bessières bypass, the rehabilitation of the Croix Falgarde iron bridge, the completion of the developments of the RD 820, the reconstruction of the Mirepoix bridge… But we will have to wait for the vote of the budget to know projects that have been victims of austerity.
