December 14th 2009
In the face of votes from the opposition, the Town Council approved the budget for 2010, totalling €46,788,144 and 17 cents. This included €682,265.74 for the "Patronato de Música y Danza" (Board of Music and Dance) and €8,238,516. 45 for Amjasa. Both these bodies are supposed to be economically self-sufficient. If you remove these two items the budget stands at €38,441,154, 14 - a decrease of 5.83% from last year.
Salaries comprise 35.8% of the budget at €13,778,011.90, an increase of 0.3%, plus another 0.3% for the pension fund. €330,000 more than the previous year.
Maintenance and functioning of the Town Hall consumes 37.% of the total at €14,316,392.04, an increase of 2.52% over 2009. The opposition remarked that this figure was not realistic, noting that this year's budget has already been exceeded. For example, publicity for Fiestas was five times that estimated. A proper financial plan was called for.
Most of the 3.3 million Investment fund will go on a payment ordered by the court for the expropriation of land and price adjustments for the Old Town re-development works. There are no new investments and no mention of the 1.7 million necessary to pay for the under-use of the underground car parks.
Financial liabilities goes up from 6.7% to 9.6% and Financial expenses (cost of loans) up from 1.1% to 3.2%.
The town hall expects to collect 10.29% more from IBI (Rates) payments, reflecting the increase in this tax. This and other local taxes comprise 58% of the Town's revenues.
Grants from the State at 6.6 million Euros represent 17%of the income. This is separate from the 3.36 million received through the second stimulus investment plan E. Nothing is known of other, promised subsidies.
The socialists noted that the 8 million budget for the Amjasa Investment programme, should legally have been signed off by September 15th. However it was actually finalised on October 29th, one of the signatories being the socialist Jose Luis Henarejos, who had been fired from the board on September 10th.
They cited this as grounds for re-doing the budget.
Note: Two years ago the Agenda21 Forum was informed about the budget before its formal presentation to the Council. This year, as last, no such briefing had taken place.
For last Year's Budget report see: Budget 2009
For full article in XAD see: El presupuesto de Xàbia...
