After the Generalitat entrusted the fight against the fiscal deficit of Catalonia during the independence process during the years of the process, in recent weeks the possibility of reforming the financing model has once again emerged from the hands of businessmen, either general for all communities or with a bilateral pact.
The current system that affects Catalonia and the rest of the common regime communities dates from 2009 and should have been reformed twice already. The norm establishes that every five years it must be reviewed in case there have been situations that make the distribution unfair.
But at the gates of regional and state elections, the debate has fallen into oblivion. Perhaps for this reason, last week, a group of Catalan businessmen decided to raise their voices in a manifesto to warn that Catalonia continues to be underfinanced and that it is necessary to solve it.
The problem is that the recovery of that request for system change comes when the debate in Spain has practically disappeared. The Ministry of Finance defends that for the first time in recent history they raised a partial reform proposal with their adjusted population model.
It was in December 2021 and almost all the communities found fault with it. Sources consulted explain that a counterproposal from the PP would be necessary to reach an agreement since without the help of the first opposition party it is impossible to carry out a change of this caliber.
In the last conversations about the model, the Generalitat did not participate. Sources from the Department of the Economy of Natalia Mas did not specify whether the Government is about to improve the current model or to be an independent state. They only ruled on the businessmen's claim: “we welcome any initiative that serves to denounce the systematic underfinancing that Catalonia suffers”.
The manifesto of the Economistes pel Benestar collective together with part of the Catalan businessmen offered only a diagnosis of the situation but without detailing solutions. It only made it clear that the model was not that of the Basque quota because it wanted to contribute to inter-territorial solidarity. Six of the best specialists in regional financing describe various formulas from bilateral agreements to Catalonia raising taxes to improve its financing.
Given the complexity of the reform process of the model, some economists such as Francisco Pérez, research director of the Valencian Institute for Economic Research (IVIE), opted for temporary solutions such as the creation of a transitory fund for underfinanced communities to approach the half. According to IVIE calculations, this new vehicle – endowed with more than 2,300 million euros – would imply greater income of 1,000 million for Andalusia, 628 for Valencia, 300 for Catalonia, 235 for Murcia, 100 for Castilla y León and 35 for the Balearic Islands.
Guillem López-Casasnovas, from UPF, is committed to "an asymmetry between the model of communities that want to opt for a system of greater fiscal responsibility and the model of those that opt for the State to provide for their fiscal needs." López-Casasnovas points out that there are communities that would not want to opt for the self-management system and would prefer that the State manage the resources that the territory needs.
Joan B. Casas, from Economistes pel Benestar, believes that since there is an idea that with a change in the model no community can lose resources, a modification would imply that "the State should contribute much more money."
The IEB-UB professor and researcher, Maite Vilalta, in line with Pérez, also believes that there would be mechanisms to improve the model in a simple and quick way, such as reducing the percentage that goes to the common basket and increasing the percentage that each community keeps. directly. Of the money that each community receives from the State, 25% goes directly to the community and the remaining 75% is put in a common basket to distribute.
Vilalta believes that the percentage that each community remains could exceed 30%. Only with this change, the autonomies that generate more income, such as Madrid and Catalonia, would obtain more resources because the part destined for solidarity would be less.
Francisco Pérez believes that the adjusted population proposal made by the central government looked suspiciously very similar to the current model, so the status quo would not have changed. Catalonia –although it has not wanted to participate or comment on changes in the financing model for years– maintains that the least bad model for distributing resources is that of the population, as shown by the census.
Ángel de la Fuente, director of Fedea, is in favor of adjusting the population but believes that there are too many conditioning factors. He believes that the most rational way to improve the financing of the communities is for them to raise taxes. In strict relation to the model, De la Fuente believes that the specific funds that distort the distribution should be simplified and eliminated.
Ana Herrero, from Uned, does not share the fact that there is underfinancing for Catalonia or Valencia and considers that the model should evolve towards one with "overlapping fiscal spaces". In her opinion, the personal income tax model, where the regional and state sections exist, should be extended to other taxes, including indirect ones.
