The extent of the slimming treatment is not yet definitive, but the first hypothesis regarding the spending review in the 113 municipalities of the province of Cremona, is a cut in state transfers of 1,319,000 euros in 2024 alone and a total of 6,599,000 over five years. For the city of Cremona, from the first circulating estimates, we are talking about -371 thousand euros per year, more than 1.8 million over the 5 years.
SPENDING REVIEW AT THE EXPENSE OF THE MUNICIPALITIES
ESTIMATES FOR THE 10 MOST POPULOUS MUNICIPALITIES IN THE PROVINCE OF CREMONA (figures expressed in euros)
The decree of 29 March 2024 of the Ministry of the Interior (Department of Internal and Territorial Affairs) which contains the distribution of the “contribution to public finances” (this is the term used to define the cuts) among the municipalities is still in draft form and has been the focus of several meetings with representatives of local authorities. Released before the European and Local Government elections, it provides that the municipalities, provinces and metropolitan cities ensure a contribution to public finances equal to 100 million euros, for the municipalities, and 50 million euros, for the provinces and metropolitan cities, for each of the years 2024 and 2025.
The final text has not yet been issued and the statements of the representatives of Anci (the national association of municipalities) suggest that there is still a lot to work on. The contributions that local authorities are called upon to give to public finances risk penalising services to citizens, which constitute the bulk of the current expenditure of local authorities: therefore school fees, canteens, but also cemetery services just to give a few examples (welfare expenses are however excluded). A good half of the cuts will be calculated in proportion to the amount received from the funds obtained through Pnrr. For this reason, the measure risks penalizing precisely those municipalities which, with their projects and punctual reporting, have been the most “virtuous” in having been awarded those funds; And Cremona, as is known, has also included in the PNRR the project for the demolition of the Martiri nursery school in via dei Classici, planning to build the new nursery school here.
“The spending review that will hit the Municipalities – says Mario Guerra, president of Anci Lombardia – with an expected cut for local authorities of 250 million this year and for a total of 1 billion and 250 million until 2028, we are concerned, after 8 years of no cuts, in general for the impact on all the Municipalities that in the last and complex years have represented a barrier to the difficulties of citizens and territories in the face of the consequences of the pandemic, international crises and the increase in the cost of raw materials and struggling with increases in costs starting from social spending.
It turns out then it is illogical that those bodies which, engaged in the construction of essential works to achieve the objectives of the PNRR, are particularly penalized in terms of the availability of current resourceswill have to face the increase in management costs to transform public works into new and better services for their communities. Think for example of day care centers and kindergartens.
We hope and work so that the discussion with ANCI will lead the Government to review this decision, to avoid the materialization of a negative scenario that will inevitably be unloaded on citizens and communities.” gb
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