The approval of the Barcelona budget will be the first proof of the robustness of the government of Jaume Collboni. Although formally the negotiations to carry out the municipal accounts will begin after the summer, the fourth deputy mayor and head of the macro-area of Economy, Treasury and Economic Promotion, Jordi Valls, has already met informally with all the municipal groups, except Vox. On the table, a proposal for continuity in terms of social spending, more restrictive in terms of ordinary spending and that proposes the modification of measures that have been controversial, such as the reserve of 30% of new developments or rehabilitations for social housing.
The councilor has already sat down with the representatives of the parties to put measures and expectations on the table and in some cases, even the calendar. "I have no indications to prioritize one party or another, the political map of Catalonia and Spain is very moved and this obviously conditions things a lot," Valls acknowledged during an interview with La Vanguardia, "but the budget structure has elements of continuity in the aspects that we believe have worked”, he adds.
There will be no cuts in social spending, "but perhaps we will introduce elements of co-responsibility or specific elements of fiscal pressure," he adds. He believes that Barcelona is not at the tax limit, "but we should talk about how we spend money."
Precisely, the clearest message that it has transmitted to the rest of the parties is the will to reduce ordinary spending to maintain the investment capacity of recent years. Regarding the debt, the Barcelona City Council is far from a compromised situation, but it will grow slightly, "going from 30% to 37% because the debt of the Institut de l'Habitatge has been consolidated, which amounts to 300 million", he points out.
Other elements that may favor the support of one party or another will be the review of the measure that involves developers transferring 30% of the flats to official housing, which BComú approved with the PSC. "The question is whether it has worked and I honestly think it has not, because it has not managed to get the private sector to develop its activity," Valls acknowledges, so instead of the transfer he considers it more effective to introduce the element of monetization and capitalization of the measure. to build social housing. "We defend 30% but changes must be made because otherwise the private sector will not accompany this process."
With a government in a clear minority (the PSC has ten of the 41 councillors) and inevitable pacts, Valls does not specify the pact preferences: Bcomú, Trias per Barcelona? "With the party with which he sees coherence - he insists - in the end a budget is how you convince and there are political factors that I cannot control". In the investment section, two clearly determined points: the coverage of the Ronda de Dalt and the acceleration of the works on the Rambla, “plus other things that will accompany us”. Things that may favor one or the other complicity.
