TERNI – Umbrian mayors in revolt against Arera, the body that determines the calculation of the waste tax. The first citizens of half the region contest Arera’s tariff method, which will lead to an increase in tariffs «largely due to the increase in costs of the previous two years, which in some cases will even be higher than 10% per year. An increase that will affect all municipalities in the area.”
A real uprising, because the mayors will now find themselves forced to increase tariffs based on the authority’s calculation system. Arera calculates and the mayors, based on the service costs set by the authority, are forced to put their hands in the citizens’ pockets, the most hateful part of the chain.
Mayors reduced to mere tax collectors, to the detriment of their popularity and their consensus with their cities. «Before the reform – write the first citizens – the cost of the service was set in advance on the basis of a negotiation between the Municipality and the manager, as provided for in the contract. Local authorities, therefore, were able to influence tariffs and control them. Today the cost is determined in the final balance, on the basis of the costs incurred by the manager, according to the parameters set by the Regulatory Authority for Energy and Waste (Arera)».
The Municipalities therefore have their hands tied, they are obliged to approve the financial plans to pay the bills and not create holes in the budgets. The letter was signed by around fifty administrators, but not by the mayor of Terni. Stefano Bandecchi, instead of joining the chorus of protests from his colleagues, preferred to call an open municipal council for Thursday 20 June. A river session that promises to be spectacular and which will see the “usual” fireworks from Mayor Bandecchi, who in any case will be forced to increase the Taric of Terni.
