Town Halls of Burgos and Valladolid Lead in Debt with Financial Institutions in 2022

For many public administrations, an adequate balance sheet depends to some extent on loans signed with banks, which, as is the case with all citizens, must be returned within the established deadlines and terms. In this sense, the Ministry of Finance and Public Function makes a balance at the end of each year to publicize the level of indebtedness of local entities, that is, town halls and provincial councils. In fact, it is thanks to this report that it can be verified how at the end of the 2022 financial year, the town halls of Burgos and Valladolid are the ones that are at the forefront in the so-called living debt.

Specifically, and always according to the data published by the department headed by María Jesús Montero, it is the Burgos city council that is in the lead with a debt with financial institutions of 181,638,646 million euros. For its part, Valladolid occupies second place with 162,175,496 millionwith around twenty million fewer.

In the case of Valladolid, in addition, of its 225 municipalities only 15.5% accumulate some type of debt of this type, that is, 35. Likewise, the sum of its debts together with the one that the Ministry attributes to the capital of Valladolid, the amount amounts to up to 166.302.337 euros.

The city that appears in third place on the list is another provincial capital, in this case León, where the debt contracted by the council with the financial institutions with which it has signed loans is 117,407,245 euros. It is also the last local entity of the Community that exceeds the barrier of one hundred million in this regard.

With a substantial difference, fourth place is occupied by Salamanca, where the outstanding debt exceeds 48 million euros according to the Treasury. In this way, the four largest cities in the Community in terms of population are the ones that accumulate the most outstanding loans. It is noteworthy, however, that in fifth place appears the first municipality with more than 20,000 inhabitants that is not a provincial capital, San Andres del Rabanedo. This municipality of the Alfoz Leonés stands with 45,764,170 euros.

Behind, with barely two and a half million difference, is the consistory of Palencia, which at the end of the 2022 financial year supported an outstanding debt of 43,313,960 euros.

In a lower echelon in terms of amounts owed it seems Avila, to which the Ministry headed by María Jesús Montero attributes a debt of 25,385,272 euros at the end of the last financial year. It is also a figure very close to that of Segoviawhich occupies the next place on the list with 24,434,353 euros pending.

The council that is not too far from these volumes of debt with financial institutions is that of Soriawhich is close to 24 million euros pending.

Among the large cities of Castilla y León that are not provincial capitals, and beyond the aforementioned San Andrés del Rabanedo, the one that was in the lead as of December 31, 2022 was ponferrada, with subscribed loans for a joint value of 18,606,920 euros. from behind appears Miranda de Ebro, a municipality located in the province of Burgos, and where the debt amounts to 13,825,449 euros; while he is also from Burgos Duero Aranda notes, according to the ministerial report recently published and consulted by this newspaper, 4,610,223 euros in loans.

In the last positions of the list appear two municipalities of the province of Valladolid, Medina del Campo and Duero Lagoon. In the first case, its debts amounted to 664,055 euros at the end of 2022, a slight difference compared to the 645,502 euros of the lagoon council.

Zamora and Arroyo, zero

Another notable issue that these data also reveal is that there are only two large municipalities in the Community where there were no outstanding loans at the end of 2022. This is Zamora capital and Arroyo de la Encomiendathe latter located in the district of Valladolid.

In addition to addressing the municipalities, the Ministry of Finance also offers outstanding debt figures for the provincial councils. In Castilla y León, it is Burgos that is in the lead with 33,721,838 euros in outstanding loans. They are followed, with practically identical figures, by the provincial institutions of Ávila (18,720,563 euros) and Segovia (18,438,200 euros).

In fourth place on this list appears the Provincial Council of Valladolid, with an outstanding debt at the end of 2022 of 15,638,613 euros and ahead of that of Palencia, which notes 14,840,663 euros in the report of the Ministry of Finance.

Much more discreet is the data provided by the Salamanca Provincial Council, with 489,833 euros, although it is still far from the less than 27,000 euros that the León Provincial Council owed at the end of 2022. On the part of the provincial institutions of Soria and Zamora, They are the only ones that at the end of 2022 did not present any loan with banking entities.

It should be noted, in relation to all of the above, that all these figures correspond to December 31, 2022. Therefore, during the seven months that have elapsed until the publication of the final report by the Ministry, it is very likely that A good part of these local entities have repaid part of these loans. Similarly, there may be others that have had to resort to this type of financial solution, either to address a project or for a need for liquidity, and there are many reasons why a City Council can resort to banking entities.