The government of Mayor Jaume Collboni suffered its first major political blow this Wednesday. Faced with the blockade announced in unison by the entire opposition, the municipal executive had no choice but to withdraw from the agenda of the Economy and Finance commission the initial approval of the City Council's budgets for 2024. Shortly before, those of Junts, BComú, ERC, PP and Vox rejected the tax ordinances proposed by the PSC. This was not completely announced, the taxation issue retained a certain suspense. However, this alley has some exits. The citizen does not necessarily have to be harmed.
Since his proclamation as mayor, despite having only ten councilors out of a total of 41, Collboni had surfed with a certain placidity. But most of the opposition councilors are not willing to make things easier for him in exchange for nothing. Summer is over. Above all, Junts and BComú are committed to assuming government responsibilities, so that the City Council's action reflects its electoral programs.
And until now Collboni has been much more in favor of variable geometry, of specific agreements, with one or another depending on the issue. These extremes largely explain what happened yesterday in the Economy Commission. The question of accounts is not just a question of numbers. Government and opposition repeatedly accuse each other of having everything well decided in advance, of not wanting to negotiate anything.
The withdrawal of the budgets from the agenda occurred in extremis, at the last moment, with the commission already started, after the opposition forces also rejected en bloc the tax ordinances proposed by the government. The deputy mayor of Economy, the socialist Jordi Valls, defended a tax policy based mainly on not increasing the tax pressure on the citizen and doubling it on cruise ships and tourist apartments.
All opposition spokespersons found an argument to reject these ordinances. And Valls did not hesitate to reproach them all that in truth his desire is not to dialogue, but to govern, that they are doing nothing other than letting themselves be carried away by clearly partisan interests. The debate, more than harsh, seemed surly. Then the socialist executive withdrew the budget vote from the agenda at the last minute. The matter was already muddy.
But this alley has exits. The Collboni government can still avoid the extension of this year's budgets without having to submit to a cumbersome question of confidence. Since he withdrew his proposed accounts, he can present a different one in a new file, in another Economics commission. The government no longer has time to do it in the ordinary November election, but it does have time in another one that is called in an extraordinary manner, in the same month, in December or even beginning in 2024. The deadlines are not the main obstacle of the new budgets. In the hallways of the Sant Jaume offices, Deputy Mayor Valls stated that he is sure that sooner or later the city will have new budgets. But he didn't say it with much enthusiasm.
A different case is that of tax ordinances. They will be put to the vote again at the next municipal plenary session, on Friday of next week. If in the meantime the negotiations between the groups bear fruit, they can be approved initially with the tacit agreement that others, those finally agreed upon, will be submitted to the final vote later. But if the opposition does not veto them again in the next plenary session, next year those of 2023 will be maintained.
And in that case, that of taxation, the citizen will notice some of its consequences. For example, the last agreement between the City Council and the Restoration Guild on the terrace tax would come to nothing. The proposed changes in the tax ordinances represent a very small overall increase in collection compared to the current one, of about six million euros, according to the executive's calculations. On the other hand, the total income via fees and taxes foreseen in the budgets that were going to be presented to the vote was 71 million higher than that of the 2023 accounts. This is due to taking into account estimated variations in population, economic activity, number of vehicles or cadastral value of properties, among other aspects
