the Centre-Val-de-Loire region facing its insoluble budgetary equation

November 7, 2024 at 7:36 p.m. by Nicolas Terrien

The Centre-Val-de-Loire Regional Council begins its debate on budgetary orientations for 2025 this Thursday, November 7, with a fact as major as it is worrying: there will be 60 million euros less in the coffers next year ! The political choices promise to be complicated.

Suspended from the debate on the finance bill for 2025 in the National Assembly, potentially threatened by the famous “49.3”the Center-Val-de-Loire Regional Council is working on its budgetary exercise for next year. “Of course, something must be done to act against the state debt“ concedes François Bonneau -we are talking about 3,200 billion euros…-, “But this is a tsunami, a rupture!” The president says he understands having to contribute to the recovery of public accounts “except that it’s not an effort, it’s asphyxiation!” he says. According to the roadmap presented, the community will already lose 28 million euros of VAT paid to replace the CVAE, as well as various state payments, with “in prime” 24 million in allocations retained under a newly created reserve fund. “It is an unfair and unjustified discard of the State” continues François Bonneau: “The management of communities is still under control, and they alone account for 70% of public investment.” If communities represent 1% of the national debt, they are obliged to bear 12% of the weight in 2025.

François Bonneau at the microphone of Nicolas Terrien:François Bonneau at the microphone of Nicolas Terrien:

The hour of necessarily painful choice

To represent things concretely, 60 million euros is the annual budgetary equivalent of the hundred high schools in the Centre-Val-de-Loire region. Deprived of this sum, strong decisions are necessary. “Free weekday transport for under-25s will not happen in 2025” already assures the president. However, there is no question of calling into question free school transport. But it is difficult to give up on highly anticipated investments, such as the construction of the Châteauneuf-sur-Loire high school which is being maintained. But it is a fact, there will be much less investment in establishments, and those planned will be postponed, deferred… There could also be consequences regarding the replacement of agents in high schools. In its standoff with the State, the region is also putting forward its proposals for new resources, in particular by asking for a share of the mobility payment paid by companies for employees. And then the community will once again activate one of its last specific tax levers: the tax rate will increase from 55 to 60 euros in 2025.

Listen to the report by Nicolas Terrien: Listen to the report by Nicolas Terrien: