the call for help from rural mayors

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A cry ofalarm which resonates like a call for help. THE rural mayors d’Ille-et-Vilainethrough the voice of their president Louis Pautrel (mayor of Le Ferré, north of Fougères), call on ministers and parliamentarians and alert their fellow citizens to the “very serious” situation that communities will face if the Barnier government’s finance bill: “We are very worried . Our budgetary balance is threatened.”

He mentions, here, the Department and the municipalities, “a pair which has proven itself for many decades” and which is “threatened”.

“A cascade effect”

In Louis Pautrel's viewfinder, the planned drop in overall operating allocation to municipalities by the State. “We are unable to know what the landing will be but the balance of budgets is threatened”, notes the representative of rural mayors who also criticizes the decision to reduce the VAT taken back on investments made since 2023 (from 16.44 to 14.85%): “On the scale of Le Ferré, that’s €5 to €6,000 in deadweight losses on the budget.”

For the departmental councils, he fears that the 2.2 billion efforts requested, and the resulting budget cuts, will have an impact “on the quality” of the skills which are theirs: nursing homes, home support, colleges (buildings and personnel ), disability and integration. “In Ille-et-Vilaine, President Chenut has already explained that he was going to significantly reduce aid to municipalities and support for associations,” recalls Louis Pautrel.

These government decisions will, he thinks, have a “cascade effect”:

To compensate for the loss of state funding, municipalities will have two options: increase taxes and/or cut operating expenses.

He imagines a drop in municipal investments: “The Department’s aid accounts for around 20%. If these subsidies drop, many municipal councils in rural communities will back down on certain projects. Especially since we are in the last year of the mandate. There will be less risk-taking”

“Towards a very deep economic crisis”

So many choices that will have consequences on the economic world:

We have already entered a crisis cycle with less demand on temp agencies and less full order books for companies. If public procurement were to be reduced in 2025, construction and public works would in turn be affected. When we know the number of people they have working around them, we would then be heading towards a very deep economic crisis. We wouldn't be far from a form of chaos.

He is also worried about the associations: “If subsidies drop, activities may not take place.”

With, in the end, citizens affected in their daily lives: “More taxes, fewer services and fewer social bonds, that’s not good.” A subject “not to be taken lightly” according to the local elected official: “We experienced the yellow vests in 2018… Perhaps we mayors and elected officials will be the tricolor vests of 2025 to show our discontent”.

The rural mayors therefore ask the government to “look elsewhere for savings”: “There, I am afraid that we will be asked to put patches on a leaky basket”. Louis Pautrel concludes: “We must find a form of budgetary balance at the state level. The headlong rush cannot last. When we start to wonder about the phenomenon of nursing homes, when we are sick and we have the worst difficulty having someone to make a diagnosis or transport us, it is not good for democracy, for Republic.”

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