Yesterday Wednesday 12 June the city council approved a change to the budget forecast both in the current part and in the public works plan.
The maneuver was presented by the budget councilor Margherita Semplici.
«This budget change had a process of explanation and discussion through 4 Commission sessions – said Semplici -. This is a maneuver that is very unbalanced on the investment front. For current spending the change is in fact only around 1% on a total budget of 92 million euros.”
Current part, total change of 700,000 euros. «The current part – explains the budget councilor – undergoes rather limited corrections with an amount of 700,000 euros. The overall meaning of the change is to finance certain capital expenditure interventions by finding resources in particular with the surplus released with the approval of the final budget for 2023″.
160,000 euros for the emergency parking. «The most significant interventions are represented by the provision of 160,000 euros for the construction of the car park in Via del Soccorso. This is a car park to be built on land owned by the local health authority which will serve to provide citizens with parking spaces that are still necessary even during the works in Piazza San Lorenzo”.
80,000 euros for moving classes at the Martin Luther King school. In conjunction with the progress of the Bottegone Smart City construction site – explained the councilor – 80,000 euros are needed to adapt the spaces for the temporary movement of classrooms on rotation at the Martin Luther King school. These are interventions that derive from the investment policies and use of the financing we have obtained.”
Collaboration agreements, increase of 40,000 euros over the three-year period. «The Administration has a significant number of collaboration agreements in place – Semplici recalled – which are bringing positive results especially for the relationship that is established between the local associations, the Proloco and the territories themselves, as well as representing a tool for the Municipality to intervene where it would be difficult to meet the needs of the territories in terms of small maintenance. The Administration responds to the additional needs of the territory by increasing the amount available to these associations by over 40,000 euros both for additional proposals and for stipulating new agreements with other associations that will propose. This allows the Administration to consolidate the decentralization policies developed over the years.”
Investment plan. «The change in the budget concerns in particular the Investment Plan – Semplici recalled – with important increases in economic frameworks for projects already in place and for others that represent a strong political will as in the case of ERP housing».
250,000 euros for the arrangement of 32 Erp homes. «Already in 2023, with the available surplus, we have provided financing to Spes for the extraordinary maintenance of 32 so-called waste homes. These are those homes that have been assigned based on the public housing ranking and whose assignees renounce even after years, thus returning to the availability of Spes. Before being reassigned, these accommodations require extraordinary maintenance. In 2023, 250,000 euros were allocated to allow work on 32 Spes homes. Once completed, they will be reassigned based on the ranking maintained by the Municipality’s housing office.”
1,600,000 euros on the Certosat alle Fornaci. “BitTenancing ERP services is a political will that materializes even more strongly with the change we bring today (yesterday, ed) – underlined Semplici – because we have planned an extraordinary maintenance intervention for 1,600,000 euros on the Certosa, that is, out of a total of 74 ERP accommodations located in two buildings. This is a significant intervention that will change the appearance of the homes, but above all the quality of life of those who live in these homes. This is possible because Spes has been recapitalized and has improved its performance, thanks to the Pistoia city council and all the other municipal councils of the member municipalities who approved the recovery plan.”
Other road works. «These are forecasts on traffic, roundabouts such as that of via Donatori del Sangue and via dello Stadio, but also interventions linked to the extraordinary maintenance of via della Quiete and via di Girone di Mezzo. Works that represent an important response in the area.”
3 million euros of available surplus. “This financing – explained the budget councilor – will be used to complete interventions already started or works already planned to be carried out”.
2,180,000 euros from the Centrale del latte d’Italia for public works. «Finally, this year we will finally have resources of approximately 2,180,000 euros which will reasonably be credited to the Municipality by the end of the year – expressed the councilor – deriving from the consideration for the withdrawal of the shares of the Centrale del latte d’Italia. This will allow us to finance a large part of the works in our Investment Plan.”
After the presentation of the budget change, the oppositions (Democratic Party, Pistoia Ecologista e Progressive and Civici Riformisti) presented 13 amendments to the maneuver which were all rejected.
The measure passed with 20 votes in favour (Brothers of Italy, Next Pistoia for Ale Tomasi Mayor, Forza Italia centrists, I love Pistoia and Lega), a vote against (Civic Reformists) and no abstentions. At the time of the vote, the PD and Pistoia Ecologista and Progressive councilors left the room.
«By rejecting all the opposition’s amendments – underlined the group leader of Pistoia Progressive Ecologist Mattia Nesti – the Administration missed an opportunity. This maneuver also finds resources thanks to the revision of the economic plan for the TARI and precisely because of this, as we had proposed, the allocation for the contributions to reduce the TARI linked to the ISEE could and should be increased. We also see late interventions in this change: resources are being allocated today for the temporary car park in Via della Crocetta, but the San Lorenzo construction site has been started for months now and Piazza Giovanni XXIII has been transformed into a car park. Demonstrating, once again, the lack of planning. At the time of the vote we left the room, to underline the dissent towards the President’s management of the proceedings, who after four hours of discussion of the amendments, by the opposition alone, did not leave time to organize the subsequent interventions , effectively denying the general discussion.”
«An extremely interesting document that shows us the path taken and the objectives still to be achieved has highlighted the leader of the League Cinzia Cerdini -. In recent years we have worked hard to make schools safe, to have gyms up to standard, we have done our utmost to continue the work in Bottegone, to make the public gardens frequented by families and not by criminals, our offices have worked hard to win the money from the PNRR which allows us to give a new face to our city, in particular to the San Lorenzo district, completely redeveloped and removed from the degradation it was experiencing and we will make it attractive for tourists who have increased exponentially and the proof it is provided to us by those 35,000 euros deriving from the tourist tax. Via del Villone will have another face and we trust in the environmentally conscious citizens for whom we have set up cycle paths. The objectives we set ourselves in 2017 will all be achieved because we leave the chatter to those who only know how to criticize without examining their conscience regarding the bad management of the past”.
«With the amendment presented on public housing – explained the group leader of Civici Riformisti Tina Nuti -, I asked to move the intervention decided by the council for 1.6 million euros from the external recovery of the Certosa alle Fornaci structure as follows: 1 million for the recovery of 90 vacant dwellings which cannot be reassigned to the families in the ranking because they need of substantial maintenance interventions; the other 600 thousand euros to be allocated to the work of numerous cemeteries in the Municipality which are in terrible conditions. It should be remembered that 1 million and 600 thousand euros comes from the sale of the former Leopoldine schools with social destination constraints. The City Council instead decided to give priority to a single already inhabited building and to leave 90 homes unused and empty. A more than sufficient reason to determine the vote against of Civics and Reformists.”
