The resolution approving the 2023 final budget was approved by the majority (Pd, Left for Modena, Civic Modena, absent Green Europe – Greens) with the 5 Star Movement voting against. The other opposition groups present (Lega Modena, Brothers of Italy, Forza Italia, Popular Alternative, Independent Group for Modena, Modena Social Independence!) left the chamber in protest for the failure to discuss a motion on “payments relating to electricity service” which, as a policy act, in the opinion of the Presidency of the Municipal Council, was not among the urgent and non-deferrable measures that the legislation allows to be addressed after the convening of the electoral rallies.
Opening the debate, the independent Group for Modena focused on the contract with Hera Luce, arguing that the resulting dispute is a paradigmatic case of conflict of interest in which the administration finds itself, as a shareholder of Hera, which generates less competition and therefore fewer benefits for citizens, as well as critical management, as demonstrated by the intervention of the judiciary. Furthermore, for the group, the increase in income from taxes does not derive so much from the expansion of the tax base but from the growth in taxes paid by the people of Modena.
After recalling that the budget is the tool for implementing the institution’s policies, the 5 Star Movement highlighted the diversity of views on the priorities for the distribution of resources, stating that the administration lacked the courage on current spending in a historic moment in which there is a great need for social interventions because poverty and fragility are increasing. The administration should, therefore, recalibrate investments and current spending to best act with the objective of social justice. While sharing some of the policies implemented by the body, the group announced a negative vote on the final balance, in line with the positions held during the legislature.
The PD group focused on the need, which should be supported by all political parties, to request from the government that virtuous municipalities can enjoy different treatment from those that are not able to manage their own budgets. A less binding treatment, which allows us to plan policies closer to citizens and with greater margins for manoeuvre. The group also highlighted that higher-level bodies, from national to European funds, support investments but tend to cut current spending, over which municipalities have very little decision-making capacity and which, consequently, they struggle to increase even if necessary.
Also according to the Left, for Modena it is necessary to have the possibility of doing more to deal with increasingly pressing social issues: if you want a city that leaves no one behind, it is necessary to increase current spending. The Municipality of Modena has chosen not to increase tariffs even in these complicated years, but at the same time has also kept expenditure unchanged. In addition to the services, which must be able to respond to new needs, it is also important for the group to give a political signal by acting on the minimum wage for anyone who works for the organization, including in contracts and subcontracts.
For Lega Modena, the administration has a lot of funds, both because the city is rich and due to the institution’s ability to raise funds, but it does not spend them as it should. For the group, expenses increase in the face of increasingly poorer services that are entrusted to private individuals or foundations with a consequent loss of quality, and it seems that the objective of the budget is to always keep taxation at the maximum, a form of harassment for the citizens that made sense when the services existed and were good but which no longer makes sense now.
“A lot of fat and little roast” is the definition of the budget for the Fratelli d’Italia group, according to which the Municipality is rich because the citizens are rich, weighed down by a serious tax pressure, but the roast is little because the services they are not up to par and the investments arrived only at the end of the race and thanks to the Pnrr, after a decade of immobility. For the group, even the available surplus of almost 22 million euros, which goes to finance works already underway, demonstrates the institution’s inability to make investments and the lack of vision and planning. The group then announced, on behalf of all the centre-right groups, that it would leave the chamber at the time of the vote as a sign of protest for the decision not to discuss the motion presented to accompany the final balance sheet which, according to the group, being linked the resolution should have acquired the same characteristics of urgency and non-deferrability.
