Aid to municipalities, transfer taxes: the arbitration of the Department of Morbihan in the face of rising expenses

Contributions to reducing the public deficit: time for choices

France's public debt leads the State to make contributions to local authorities. The Morbihan department will not escape this. On its scale, it will have to take 24 million euros from its revenues, to which will be added 8 million in new expenses. This additional burden leads the Department to make choices: it will increase the transfer tax rate from 3.8 to 4.5% on June 1, 2025 and reduce its aid to local authorities. “You are depriving the municipalities of €16.5 million, when you could have increased transfer taxes well before,” regretted Damien Girard, for the opposition. “We didn’t need it. This is the case now because France is in a crisis situation,” defended President David Lappartient.

A consistently high level of investment

Investment expenditure nevertheless amounts to €165 million, or €3 million more than the 2024 budget. “This is out of all proportion to what we see in other departments which will have a lot of struggling to make ends meet,” estimates David Lappartient. The largest item goes to the modernization of the road network (€31 million), followed by that of the colleges (€24 million, including €21 million for the Henri Wallon college alone, in Lanester). The Department will devote €4 million to the development of new cycle paths. Among the specific projects, there is the construction of a reception building on the Neolithic site of Petit Mont in Arzon (€1 million) and the €5 million devoted to the renovation of the Kerguéhennec estate in Bignan, infested by the dry rot.

Social spending still on the rise

The operating expenses of the Morbihan Department are up to 722 million euros. This corresponds to an increase of +6.4%. Within this item, social spending alone reaches 466 million euros. “They are up by around 30 million euros, and this is the consequence of decisions taken in Paris,” regretted the President of the Department.

Recourse to borrowing, despite “a healthy financial situation”

It is a leitmotif in the mouth of President David Lappartient: “We have a healthy financial situation, the result of rigorous management”. As of December 31, the local authority's debt will amount to €76 million. But at €109 million on April 1, 2025, when the takeover of the gendarmerie lease will have been integrated. “This is a difficult budgetary exercise. Arbitrations had to be made. And we will have to borrow, but reasonably. »

The fate of the Michelins

The announcement, Tuesday, November 5, of the closure of the Michelin factory in Vannes (299 employees) could not be passed over in silence in the departmental hemicycle. Damien Girard denounced “a brutal, inhumane announcement”. The president of the Department, David Lappartient, called for “individual support for each employee and that the site always has an industrial vocation”. The departmental majority and minority converged to adopt a motion in support of the employees of the Vannes factory and their families.