The note turns out to be particularly salty. While local authorities will have to tighten their belts in 2025 and return part of their revenue to the State to make up the public deficit, the City of Rennes is preparing to pay a heavy price. In total, around 11 million euros should be collected. A real blow in preparing your budget for next year.
In detail, the finance bill presented Thursday October 10, 2024 by the government of Michel Barnier provides for a total effort of around 5 billion euros on the part of communities. The 450 largest in the country – including the City of Rennes and the Metropolis – will be levied 2% of their operating revenue. The share of VAT paid by the State will also be frozen, although it should have increased mechanically next year. Their contributions to the national retirement fund for local authority agents will also increase by 4 points.
What does this mean for Rennes?
“That’s around 10.8 million euros less for the City of Rennes,” laments Nathalie Appéré, interviewed this Monday, October 14 during a pre-municipal council press briefing. “This is an absolutely unprecedented amount and an extremely powerful financial blow.” For the City of Rennes, the calculations must therefore be redone while most of the decisions had already been validated a few weeks before the vote on the 2025 budgetary guidelines. Above all, the sum is far from being negligible for the finances of the municipality.
“We wanted to count the impact in public service,” illustrates the mayor of Rennes. “10.8 million euros amounts to 38% of our annual spending on the early childhood care sector – the equivalent of four months and two weeks of nursery closures. It is also 52% of the operating costs of all of the city’s cultural facilities – which would amount to closing all our cultural facilities for six months. Finally, it amounts to more than 100% of the annual budget dedicated to the municipal police, public peace and the prevention of delinquency – which would mean an entire year without intervention of this nature.
Investments in danger
Particularly upset by these announcements, Nathalie Appéré expressed her “anger” at “a totally incomprehensible and unfair method”. “We do not yet know if it is just an annual shock in 2025 or if it will be three successive shocks between 2025 and 2027. This could endanger between 20 and 50% of our investment program. There will be strong repercussions. »
In Brittany, other communities will have to participate in the effort requested by the government. The Rennes Metropolis should also lose more than 14 million euros from its budget. As for the Department of Ille-et-Vilaine, the amount should amount to “between €30 and €35 million” according to Jean-Luc Chenut, the president of the departmental council who spoke last week. Same sentence for the Brittany Region which will have to give up 40 to 50 million euros in its operating expenses for next year.
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