The difficult financial situation that many town councils have entered as a result of rising prices, among other factors, has led the Barcelona Provincial Council to make an extraordinary aid fund of 75 million euros available to the local governments of the province. euros so that they can close the year without a deficit and ensure liquidity in 2024.
This extraordinary fund for the town councils and decentralized municipal entities of the province of Barcelona will be applied urgently. It will be definitively approved on November 9 after yesterday the plenary session of the Provincial Council gave the green light to the credit modification that must make this operation possible.
The president of the Provincial Council, the socialist Lluïsa Moret, framed this extraordinary fund in the reason for being of the provincial corporation, that of “being at the service of the 311 municipalities of the Barcelona district”, “accompanying them” and giving them tools so that can carry out their work in the best conditions.
The objective of this economic injection is to guarantee the functioning of public services. The difficulties in fulfilling this mission have increased in recent times as a result of price increases, in general, and energy prices, in particular. In addition, the strong increase in spending they had to face to combat the effects of the pandemic also weighs negatively on the accounts of local corporations.
The first phase of the plan is for immediate application. It will be endowed with 50 million euros and will allow city councils to close the current budget years without their deficit skyrocketing as a result of increased spending. Payments of these aids are scheduled for the month of December.
The second phase will have the remaining 25 million euros available and will allow municipalities to start 2024 without liquidity problems.
“It cannot be ignored that there is a need to address the structural deficiencies in municipal financing,” said the president of the Provincial Council, who is both mayor of Sant Boi de Llobregat and organizational secretary of the PSC, at a press conference. Lluïsa Moret thus echoed the demands of many who are raising their voices for the local financing system to be redefined and for the problem they suffer to be resolved with a structural solution.
The distribution of the aid will be approved at the next governing meeting of the Barcelona Provincial Council. City councils and decentralized municipal entities must accept them before November 30. The distribution of resources will be made using criteria similar to those that usually govern this type of aid from the provincial corporation, such as the number of inhabitants, unemployment rates or the surface area of the requesting municipalities.
Two lines of aid are established. The first to finance municipal services. It includes repairs, maintenance, conservation of infrastructure, funds to address the increase in supply prices, modernization of traditional economic sectors, promotion of sustainable tourism, promotion of sports and reduction of the digital divide.
The second line is to support investments in public space, energy-sustainable equipment or the enhancement of architectural heritage, among other purposes.
