the Center may have to explain its choice

“I have already received several messages from people who wonder if the Center is starting to vote left,” admitted an elected official to the City Council on Tuesday morning. The party’s position when debating the budget of the town of Delémont on Monday evening did not go unnoticed, while the Center is traditionally rather to the right in the canton of Jura. By allying himself with the left-wing parties, he helped validate an increase in the tax rate, certainly lower than initially planned, but an increase nonetheless (+0.1 instead of +0.15).
The leader of the centrist group, Patrick Frein, does not hide it: he will certainly have to be held accountable to party colleagues.
Explain the consensus
And being accountable will firstly mean explaining where this famous consensus obtained came from when, a few weeks earlier, many were those who affirmed their desire to “not let the Municipal Council get away with it so easily” by solving problems with the wave of a fiscal wand. While, also, several party executives came out of the woodwork to put pressure, recalling the reluctance that the Center showed when it came to providing the administration with several additional positions.
Representatives of the groups met twice in a desire “to find a common base”. “Personally, I was not the most favorable to following this consensus and accepting this tax increase, specifies Patrick Frein. But throughout the discussion, we saw that everyone was ready to make an effort in the meaning of the other. We also did not want to make symbolic job cuts which have little effect.”
That said, the elected official warns: “We will maintain pressure on the Municipal Council to keep its commitments.” A cross-party motion is being prepared to force him to do so. She will ask that the executive seriously examine the possibilities of reducing municipal staff numbers.
Where to find the 200,000 fr.
A consensus to avoid rout, but a consensus which cracked when the time came to discuss a reduction in the payroll of 200,000 francs, essential to compensate for the half-point of the tax increase. deleted. The CS-POP-Verts group opposed it. Just as he opposed cuts in subsidies to social institutions, such as “Read and Write”.
It remains to be seen how the Municipal Council intends to subtract these 200,000 francs. of the payroll. “This will be one of the first things we will tackle next year, by meeting the personnel commission as well as the unions,” says Mayor Damien Chappuis.
Public holidays?
Several possibilities are available to him: lower salaries by a certain percentage or eliminate fragments of EPT during the year. Another solution could be to repeal employees’ right to finish an hour early on the day before public holidays. “We need to know if all these hours put together are worth 200,000 francs,” the mayor simply replies.
Note also that the extraordinary referendum accepted by the assembly de facto removes the optional referendum. The right will therefore not have to embark on a collection of signatures. Finally, the budget was accepted by 28 votes, and not 23, against 6 no and 7 abstentions.