Edouard Philippe lectures Catherine Vautrin on the monetary effort required of communities | EUROtoday

Rough morning for the Minister of Partnership with the Territories. At the opening of the Intercommunalités de France conference – the affiliation which brings collectively teams of municipalities – on Thursday October 17, in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), Catherine Vautrin had, as soon as once more, to face the anger of the native elected officers. The 5 billion euros effort requested from them by Michel Barnier’s authorities for 2025 just isn’t being applied. Among them, the host of the place, the mayor of Le Havre, Edouard Philippe (Horizons), was capable of appeal to the favor of the viewers by lecturing the minister.

Certainly, the previous prime minister acknowledged right away, “no one disputes the idea that in a collective effort, which must be provided by the nation, [les collectivités territoriales] have their role to play”. “Might as well say it”he declared. For the remaining, nothing finds favor in his eyes within the authorities’s decisions.

First, on the tactic. “I would like to draw your attention to something that I experienced when I was Prime Ministerhe said, addressing Catherine Vautrin. It is necessary and legitimate that the discussion takes place in Parliament; it is useful that it also takes place with local elected officials. » And this, so that “Good solutions can be agreed together. I insist on this point ». Edouard Philippe is the instigator of the famous “Cahors contracts”: from 2018 to 2020, the State compelled native authorities to spend much less, beneath penalty of monetary sanctions. The system left a really dangerous reminiscence amongst elected officers.

“A direct tax”

Basically, “the logic of the levy on operating revenue is not spontaneously easy to grasp”tackled Edouard Philippe. On October 8, the federal government offered the small print of the financial savings anticipated from communities: on the funds of the 450 largest communities within the nation, 3 billion euros can be allotted. “in reserve” with a purpose to “curb local spending” ; the excess worth added tax (VAT), anticipated in 2025 to compensate for native taxes eliminated by Emmanuel Macron, can be stored by the State (1.2 billion euros); lastly, the VAT compensation fund, supposed to assist communities make investments, can be much less beneficiant in 2025 (800 million euros in financial savings for the State).

And that is the place the “terrible trap” towards which Edouard Philippe warned M^me Vautrin: that each one these measures have “as an impact, either to reduce local public investment or to increase local debt”. And, he added, “acknowledge with me that there would be something extravagant if a system designed to help find a response to public overindebtedness resulted in an increase in local public debt”.

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