The municipal council of Bastia which took place on Thursday April 13 in the evening was mainly devoted to the vote of the primitive budget 2023. If the majority put forward “reasonable” orientations, the oppositions strongly criticized the “failures” of the management of the city and the sincerity of the budget model.
Un budget “reasonable, prudent and ambitious.” The words are chosen, when Jean-Joseph Massoni, the “finance gentleman” of the municipality, declines the main axes of the primitive budget 2023. 91 million euros, of which more than a third devoted to investments. “We are in the presence of satisfactory ratios, whether in terms of the ability to reduce debt and the capital expenditure that we want to carry for the citysays the deputy in charge of finance. This reasonable management will allow us to finance our investments without activating the tax lever this year, as has been the case since we took over. ”
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Facing the councillors, Jean-Joseph Massoni tries to highlight the signs of what he considers to be a virtuous management of municipal funds: operating expenses estimated at 1083 euros per inhabitant, below the average for the cities of same stratum (1200 euros), taxation per inhabitant established at 583 euros (against 679 euros) and expenditure on equipment – 532 euros per inhabitant – well above the average (292 euros). All this with 30% lower tax revenues compared to other cities in the same stratum.
“Like the musicians on the Titanic…”
If we had stuck to this presentation, the debates around the original budget would have been a walk in the park. But here it is: the opposition, which rejected it en bloc, has a divergent vision of this display of figures. “If this document is a financial translation of your political choices for the city, it sends the wrong signal to the population and to traders”, immediately thunders Julien Morganti. The young left-wing municipal councilor is the first to launch hostilities in the ranks of the opposition. “Lack of vision”, “routine management”, a town “which is bad”… the leader of Un futur pour Bastia does not spare his criticism of a nationalist majority which is entering its tenth fiscal year at the helm of the municipality.
As at the time of the orientation debate (our edition of March 24), he calls into question the sincerity of the budget model by pointing “The Huge Difference Between Program Authorizations and Payment Creditssupports Julien Morganti. 30% of the program will be carried out after the mandate. Twelve million euros of investment are planned for the car park on the seafront but only 1% is budgeted until the end of the mandate. You will achieve the feat of not having done a single car park in six years, which is a first in Bastia for decades. “
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Other reviews focus on “The Debt Explosion”, which should reach 52 million euros by the end of the year, and recourse to borrowing. Which makes Jean-Martin Mondoloni say, in the benches of the right-wing opposition, that the municipal majority is committed to “an unsustainable financial trajectory in the medium term.” “You flatter yourself cheaply by comparing yourself to the average of cities in the same stratum, but you know that comparison is not righthe asserts. It will nevertheless be necessary to recognize that the loans of today will have to be settled tomorrow. Now, you seem to be advancing like the musicians on the Titanic approaching the iceberg…”
“It will be up to the people of Bastia to judge”
An emblematic file crystallizes the “fears” of the opposition: the municipal theater renovation project, initially valued at 33 million euros, and the cost of which has already been revised upwards to reach 38 million.
The majority do not dispute the increase linked to the rise in construction costs, against a backdrop of inflation and the energy crisis, nor the difficulties which weigh on a necessarily constrained budgetary exercise in one of the poorest cities in France. . She nevertheless ensures that this project does not compromise municipal finances.
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Facing the councillors, the mayor, Pierre Savelli, develops his arguments around what he presents as “reasonable” management: gradual reduction in the city’s debt, improvement in gross savings and controlled investment. “You can blame us for all the wrongs if you want, but we have an ambition for our city and we will not deviate from our choicessupports Pierre Savelli. The new municipal theater will be an emblem that will forever mark the fact that Bastia is the capital of culture in Corsica and will make the city ever more attractive and dynamic. It is changing in depth, and it will be up to the people of Bastia to judge, when the time comes. “
