Green light in Parliament for the draft Budget Law for the community of 2024, accounts endowed with 46,753 million euros and in which, as explained by the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, health issues are prioritized and also includes the problem of water in this land.
The accounts, which have attracted criticism from the left-wing bench, allocate 62% to social spending and a total of 5,809.7 million for investments, 6.2% more than in the current year, while a forecast of 53,400 new jobs.
This was detailed by the Minister of Economy, Finance and European Funds, Carolina España, in a press conference after the approval of the Budget Bill and its formal delivery to the President of Parliament, Jesús Aguirre. The community accounts for next year will now begin their parliamentary process until final approval at the end of December by the Plenary.
The 2024 Budgets grow by 1,149 million euros compared to the current year, which represents 2.5%. The counselor has highlighted that they are budgets that support families, employment, companies and water and that consolidate the reduction in taxes and the economic transformation of Andalusia.
The budgets contemplate the increase in spending available to citizens or non-financial spending (the money that can be invested without taking into account the items destined to pay debt), which increases by 5.5% compared to this year and by 40% more than what was allocated in 2018 (the last of the PSOE-A government). It represents 2,234 million euros more to invest in the Andalusians compared to 2023 and 12,369 million if compared to the budgets approved in 2018, as stated by Spain.
Personnel expenses increased by 5.5 percent both due to salary increases for Board employees and new hires. This increase is fundamentally due to the increase in tax revenues and the reduction in spending destined to repay debt, an item that decreased by 25.7% compared to last year. In these budgets for 2024, the items allocated to investments grow more, which increase by 6.2% compared to current spending (personnel, purchases of ordinary goods and services), with an increase of 5.4%. Thus, the Bill once again is a budget that supports investment in health, transport, socio-educational or I D i infrastructures.
These investments or "tangible" projects represent 5,809 million euros, a figure 57% higher than the investment items in 2018. On the other hand, two out of every three euros of investments are provincialized, that is, 3,862 million euros are allocated to projects from a specific province and another 630.6 million appear in the text destined for several provinces simultaneously, as explained by Spain.
Likewise, he highlighted that the budgets once again break the record in investments for social spending (Health, Education, Social Services, Employment and Culture); support for the productive fabric and hydraulic policies. In this sense, 62 of every hundred euros of the budget will be invested in public services. In this sense, the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs accounts for 30.47% of spending, with 14,246 million euros, a figure that represents 7% of the Andalusian Gross Domestic Product. The Health budget is 3% more than last year and 44.7% more than the 2018 budget.
Regarding Education, the Ministry of Educational Development and Vocational Training concentrates 18.9% of the expenditure: It will receive 8,866.2 million euros, 4.1% more than in 2023 and 40.1% more than what was set in the 2018 budgets. The items allocated to Education represent 5% of the Andalusian GDP if the 1,685 million contemplated in the financing model of public universities are included.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Social Inclusion, Youth and Families increases its budget by 8.6%, up to 2,955 million. Within this policy, the Social Services and Dependency Agency (Assda) takes on special importance, whose budget will grow by 11.5% in 2024 to reach the figure of 1,963.1 million.
With respect to the Department of Employment, its budget increases by 13.9%, up to 1,252.6 million euros. They are 153 million more than in the 2023 Budget.
The latter will receive 2,767 million euros, 5.1% more than in 2023 and 44.1% of the support items for the productive fabric. In addition, Transportation Infrastructure policies will receive 1,149 million.
Regarding hydraulic policies, in addition to the 1,500 million in works to ensure supply and tertiary uses that are already being invested by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development and the three drought decrees approved (by value of 300 million euros), the budget for 2024 contemplates another 578 million euros specifically for water.
These are investments for infrastructure construction works, improving the efficiency of existing ones and in waterways and irrigation. The figure is 12% higher than that allocated in the 2023 budget.
Although 76% of the 2024 budget expenses will be financed with own resources that come from the Board, which is known as self-financing, the European Funds will also play an important role in these accounts, with 3,564 million euros, a figure which is 15.5% lower than the previous year (655 million euros less).
This decrease is due to the end of the 2014-2020 framework and lack of knowledge of the eligibility criteria to develop projects included in the 2021-2027 framework.
On the other hand, the budgets increase the amounts allocated to the municipalities, both through the Municipal Cooperation Plan (2,113 million) and the Patrica (the unconditional financing that the municipalities receive), which will reach 530 million.
The budget has generated criticism from left-wing parties, starting with the PSOE-A, whose PSOE Economy spokesperson in Parliament, Alicia Murillo, assured this Tuesday that the Junta's budgets for 2024 "are not credible" and has accused the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, of "lying and manipulating." The accounts, she said, "do not solve the problems of Andalusians today."
For her part, the spokesperson for the Parliamentary Group For Andalusia, Inmaculada Nieto, has stated that the Budgets reflect the "weakness" and "lack of ambition" of Juanma Moreno's Executive, since it once again "decreases Andalusia's contribution with its own resources to Andalusian politics and the problems" that the community has. She added that, on the other hand, the contribution made by other administrations to the Board's accounts is growing a lot, by 3,000 million.
"The Government has an absolute majority, it can do it, pass the roller, but then it should not say that it is a government of dialogue," said José Ignacio García, spokesperson for the Adelante Andalucía Parliamentary Group, with the premise that "one of the two things "does not match" between the information provided to parliamentarians and the proclamation of a dialogic government that the Andalusian makes of himself.
