A face emergency face with traders yesterday, an internal battle within the majority today. These are not easy days for the mayor of Turin Stefano Lo Russo, who must keep in check (as much as possible) the city’s anger over the increase in the Tari.
It all started last Saturday when the Municipality announced, with a statement addressed to the newspapers, a 6.67% increase in the waste tax, a choice made by the council «made necessary by the increase in Amiat’s service costs (the word of order, “inflation”)”. A blow that took everyone by surprise and provoked the ire of unions, citizens (salaries certainly did not increase as much as the rest) and trade associations: “Authoritarian move”. To put it in terms of traders’ numbers, it means 235 euros more for a restaurant, 118 for a bar, 135 for a grocery store (every 100 square meters): «There are those who will pay 10 thousand euros»says Giancarlo Banchieri of Confesercenti.
So yesterday the city hastily summoned the traders, in a meeting with councilors Chiara Foglietta and Gabriella Nardelli. Looking for a patch which, however, will hardly cover the hole: «Now they have decided for this year, they told us that nothing more can be done», adds Banchieri.
I am two innovations have been put on the table, but which will be adopted, possibly, only in 2025: the increase in the number of installments (currently 4) up to eight-ten and the payment of a part of the tax based on the quantity of waste produced (in Chieri, for example, the cost varies based on the size of the waste bin requested by the business). But this last hypothesis, if it is put forward, will still be an experiment.
The real clash, however, (or at least the most difficult one to manage), could take place during the majority meeting this evening at 6pm, a meeting to which the Amiat leaders were also sent. In the centre-left, in fact, There are those who wonder how much the lost income due to arrears amounts to: often, as traders explain, more taxes mean more delays for those who cannot afford them (and therefore coffers that remain, despite their intentions, half empty). And then there are those who ask, like the moderate Simone Fissolo, «what are the management increases that led to the increase in the tax: that they at least give us the message that they are working to obtain tangible results.”
