COSENZA – The municipal council, chaired by Giuseppe Mazzuca, approved unanimously the TARI financial plan for the period 2024-2025. Green light also given to the TARI tariffs for 2024, with 22 votes in favor and five minority councilors voting against (Giuseppe D’Ippolito, Francesco Caruso, Francesco Luberto, Alfredo Dodaro and Michelangelo Spataro). Finally, the chamber also approved the third and final point on the agenda is the changes to the municipal regulation of Young which had already been approved by the City Council in the meeting of 14 November 2023.
After the debate, Mayor Franz Caruso spoke on the approval of the TARI financial plan and tariffs for 2024. Before speaking on the TARI financial plan and tariffs, the mayor, as the President of the Municipal Council Giuseppe Mazzuca had already done at the opening of the session (the room had observed a minute’s silence), recalled the figure of the provincial President of Confesercenti Dino De Santowho suddenly passed away last night in Rovito.
On TARI, the Mayor first thanked the councilors who participated in the debate and also those who, despite voting against, they had words of appreciation for the commitment made by the Administration in the development of the Tari Plan and in determining the tariffs. Mayor Franz Caruso also addressed councilor Bianca Rende “for the contribution she has given in the direction of appreciating the path that the Administration has intended to pursue, namely the reduction of the costs of delivering undifferentiated waste which allows the ‘widening of the range of exemptions, continuing the virtuous path that we have already inaugurated’.
On the Plan of communication presented by “Ecology Today” and subjected to evaluation by the municipal administration, to raise public awareness of more correct behavior in waste disposal and separate collection, the Mayor recognized the need to start it. “A series of initiatives are planned – he said – not only advertising, through posters, information media to be distributed to citizens, but also with commercials and videos to be broadcast on local TV and social media. The communication activity will also extend – added Franz Caruso – to schools with the presence of Ecologia Oggi representatives and institutional representatives, to spread good waste separation practices in schools. We will move in this direction. If everyone respects the differentiated rules and if everyone pays for the service, we believe that we can move towards a subsequent remodulation of the tariffs which will lead to an expansion of the range of exemptions because we know that in the city there are groups of need that deserve the attention of the municipal administration”.
The series of interventions in the debate on the TARI financial plan and tariffs was opened by the report of the Mayor’s delegate councilor for taxes and collection Antonello Costanzo.
“What we are doing tonight – underlined Costanzo – demonstrates, where ever there was a need, that we are the municipal administration that makes commitments and keeps them, working, sometimes even quietly, to give the right answers to the city. We have done this in these two and a half years of administration in every respect, with a great sense of responsibility, and we are doing it today with the approval of the TARI financial plan for the period 2024-2025 and the related tariffs for 2024. The actions put in place in recent years – Antonello Costanzo said – are starting to bear fruit. The Plan under discussion this evening, as you well know, is a fundamental act based on what was established in the ARERA resolutions. From these resolutions it is established that the costs due for waste management are totally covered by the sums collected from the relevant taxes. The overall cost for the relevant year 2024 is approximately 17 million and 900 thousand euros, with a reduction in cost, compared to the previous year, of approximately 300 thousand euros.
With great satisfaction – added the delegate for taxes and collection – without getting too excited about the results achieved, we can see the effects of what has been put in place. Among these, the optimization and relative increase in 2023 TARI collections, as well as the increase in the number of taxpayers following an important assessment activity. This in turn leads us to the definition of TARI tariffs and the possibility of being able to grant exemptions to citizenship”.
In this regard, Costanzo remarked how “it is important to remember that art. 3 of Presidential Decree 158 of 1999 specifies that the tariff is made up of a fixed part and a variable part”. With extreme satisfaction, Councilor Costanzo communicated one to the citizens decrease in the variable part which represents the substantial part of the tax, approximately 9%. “This will translate into a small saving for Cosenza families who have suffered first-hand from increases in the cost of living in recent years. Furthermore – added Costanzo – we lend a helping hand to needy families in the city, widening the benefit ranges compared to recent years. This was also possible with coverage, through budget funds, for an amount of approximately 250 thousand euros”.
The new concessions will concern the following ISEE bands: from 0.00 to 2,500.00 euros the concession of the total exemption of the fixed and variable part of the TARI tariff applies, on the basis of the indication of the equivalent economic situation (ISEE) of the user/applicant’s family unit; from 2,501.00 to 4,000.00 euros, the benefit of total exemption only of the variable part of the Tari tariff applies on the basis of the indication of the equivalent economic situation (ISEE) of the user/applicant’s family unit; from 4,001.00 to 5,500.00 euros, the 50% exemption benefit applies only to the variable part of the Tari tariff based on the indication of the equivalent economic situation (ISEE) of the user’s family unit/ applicant.
Immediately afterwards, a resolution was presented by the minority, illustrated by councilor Giuseppe D’Ippolito and then put to the vote by Prime Minister Giuseppe Mazzuca, approved unanimously. In the same resolution the minority councilors, taking into account that an agreement was recently signed by the municipal administration with the anti-racket associations and considering that it is in the interest of the council groups to fight against the phenomenon of usury, they proposed, involving the Mayor, the Council and all the Managers, to find in the municipal budget the resources necessary to guarantee total exemption from the Tari to all businesses, activities and private citizens who are victims of usury.
Finally, the President of the City Council took note of the new designation of the members of the minority council commissions, considering the recent establishment of the council monogroup called “Azzurri per Cosenza” whose Presidency was appointed the city councilor Francesco Luberto and also considering the resignation of the same to the board commissions assigned to it as an effective minority member.
It was therefore necessary to remodulate the effective members of the board commissions in relation to the principle of minority/majority representation.
The minority in council commissions
This is the new composition of the minority members of the Council Commissions:
–Control and Guarantee Commission: Francesco Caruso, Giuseppe D’Ippolito, Alfredo Dodaro, Ivana Lucanto;
–Budget-Heritage-Taxes: Francesco Caruso, Giuseppe D’Ippolito, Ivana Lucanto, Alfredo Dodaro;
–Public Works – Transport – Human Resources: Francesco Caruso, Giuseppe D’Ippolito, Ivana Lucanto, Alfredo Dodaro;
–Urban planning – Private constructionto: Francesco Caruso, Alfredo Dodaro, Ivana Lucanto, Giuseppe D’Ippolito;
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