The Consell spokesperson Ruth Merino was forceful yesterday: “We are very clear that the growth of the public sector must be reduced; Therefore, each of the resources must be analyzed, justified and optimized.”
The Minister of Finance, Economy and Public Administration (-14.8%), one of the areas that has seen its budget reduced compared to 2023, pointed out that the priority of the Consell led by Carlos Mazón is to reinforce social spending with priority to reduce public sector spending. However, and when asked by the media, she ruled out that any public entity will be eliminated for the moment.
One of the services that reduces its allocation is the Valencian Employment and Training Service, Labora, which has a spending forecast for 2024 of 446,187,280 euros compared to 552,900,830 in 2023. A drop of 19% reflected in the Budgets presented yesterday.
The investment in the Railway service of the Generalitat Valenciana is also reduced, to which 282,473,670 euros will now be allocated compared to 315,590,220 euros in 2023. Precisely the Department of the Environment, Water, Infrastructure and Territory, which manages this department, is the one whose budget has decreased the most compared to the previous year, and registers a drop of 33.9%, the highest in the organic structure of the Generalitat Valenciana.
For the moment, the councilor did not confirm whether there will be a continuity in the discounts for public transport, valid until December 31 after the extension granted by the current Consell.
Likewise, another of the public organizations that has seen its budget reduced is the Valencian Housing and Land Entity, dependent on the Department of Housing, which goes from 90,431,020 euros to the current 76,542,570 euros, a reduction of 15.3 %.
On the other hand, Espacios Economicos Empresariales, S.L., the entity that manages Parc Sagunt and Parc Sagunt II - where the SEAT-Volkswagen gigafactory will be located - increases its budget and goes from being 0.34% of the public sector to reaching 3. 88%. In total, the budget grows from 13,405,790 euros in 2023 to 148,501,700 euros in 2024.
The amount allocated to Fira València also increases, going from 27,214,260 euros to 33,015,330 euros, a variation of 21.32%; Meanwhile, that of Turisme Comunitat Valenciana decreases (it goes from 94,995,000 to 74,520,000 euros) although now Tourism also has the rank of Conselleria. The budget of the Valencian Innovation Agency (AVI), a government agency created in 2017, also reduces, which takes a good cut in the 2024 budgets.
Both are the responsibility of the Ministry of Innovation, Industry, Commerce and Tourism, which records a reduction in spending of 15.6% compared to the previous year. Similarly, the Second Vice Presidency and the Ministry of Culture and Sports have seen their budget reduced, whose budget falls by 5.1%. However, cultural entities such as the Patronato del Misteri d'Elx increase their budget and go from 424,000 euros to 514,000 euros.
On the other hand, there is a “substantial increase” (38%), in the words of Merino, in the funds allocated to Equality policies and support for women victims of violence, which went from 26 to 36 million euros.
