Region, council approves Stability and Budget bill. Schifani: «More money for healthcare and against drought, we are aiming to attract investments and new hires in the Forestry Corps»
«With the 2025-2027 budget, the government allocates greater resources for the health system, continues interventions to combat drought, aims to attract investments, confirms the allocations in favor of local authorities already increased last year and releases hiring in the Forestry Corps”. The president of the Sicilian Region, Renato Schifani, thus announces the main provisions contained in the Budget and Stability bills approved today by the council. «For the second consecutive year – he adds – we aim to approve the two laws by the end of the year to avoid having to resort to the provisional exercise and to give full operation, from the beginning of 2025, to the expenditure chapters of all departments. The government aims to counter the emergencies that afflict our region, starting from the water crisis and the insufficiency of medical personnel in Sicily and to make the measures for development and in favor of businesses structural.”
The Stability Law is worth approximately 650 million euros of which 550 are allocations in favor of Municipalities, Metropolitan Cities and Free Consortia. Added to these are the numerous interventions contained in the Budget Law, including the financing of local public transport and connections with the smaller islands. Among the other measures financed by the budget, there is also the increased funding for healthcare which will lead, with the regional participation of 85 million euros, to an increase in the Health Fund of approximately 170 million euros. Still on the topic of healthcare, in the Stability Law the Region allocates 10 million euros to encourage the presence of doctors in the hospitals of the ASPs which have greater staff shortages.
The initiatives relating to the fight against drought and for agriculture are worth around 50 million euros. Resources are allocated for capital interventions to deal with the crisis, for the planning of irrigation interventions, for the extraordinary maintenance of water works and for aid to the wine sector. Five million are allocated for non-deferrable interventions in the field of sewerage-purification projects, 1.5 million for the planning of maritime state property areas and two million for financing to municipalities for the purchase of school buses.
Furthermore, the stabilization of the ASU staff used by the regional department of cultural heritage, other interventions in the field of civil protection and tourism and a new edition of the “car tax rag” are also foreseen. We therefore propose the possibility for Sicilians to pay by 30 April 2025 the regional car tax that has expired and not paid between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2023, without interest and penalties. The provision also includes a rule that provides benefits for banks and insurance companies that pay the stamp duty applied on current accounts and policies in Sicily.
«With the green light to the Stability law and the Budget law – states the Councilor for Economy Alessandro Dagnino – the government launches measures to combat emergencies, strengthens services to citizens and above all interventions for economic development and growth of the Region’s fiscal capacity. The establishment of an Agency for attracting investments, in the Stability Bill, following the model of other Regions, aims to make external investors aware of the possibilities for growth in the regional territory. This is a first measure that is part of an organic plan of policies in favor of businesses.”
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