There are two million euros that the Santa Cruz City Council is going to reduce the chicharreros in taxes. Specifically in the rate of garbage collection, which will be discounted at 10.5% for more than 90,000 families, of which 925 will have a 100% subsidy, as well as other 12,000 small and medium-sized companies and freelancers, who they will also not have to pay the business garbage fee. This tax reduction will take effect on January 1, as announced yesterday by the mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, who also pointed out that, to compensate for this decrease in income, the Property and Real Estate Tax (IBI) will be raised. ) to 35 large owners, or what is the same, to the owners of buildings whose cadastral value exceeds five million euros, and which, as Bermúdez stated, belong, in 90% of the cases to public administrations and banks .
“This is good news for families and companies in the capital,” said the mayor of the capital at the beginning of his appearance to detail this tax reduction. The mayor recalled that Santa Cruz continues to be one of the municipalities with the lowest taxation in Spain. “Given the crisis that is affecting everyone so much with widespread increases in electricity, with a growth in unemployment, which, fortunately in Santa Cruz we are facing better than in other points, or the disappearance of companies (more than 400), we wanted take a step forward, “he said.
This step forward involves the reduction of the garbage rate for 91,645 families in the capital by 10.5%, and 100% for 925 considered vulnerable. In absolute terms, the reduction will mean going from the current average of 74 euros to 69. “We also reduced 100% of the business garbage rate to 12,500 SMEs and the self-employed, which are 97% of the productive fabric of Santa Cruz” Bermúdez added. Most of the companies that are going to be able to take this measure have less than 1,000 square meters. Those whose business exceeds this dimension will keep the bonus at the 50% rate that is already in force.
Faced with this tax reduction, the Treasury area, for which the mayor Juan José Martínez is responsible, has sought a way to avoid the loss of income, and has found it by raising taxes on those who have the most. In this case, the large equity holders in the capital. “The legislation allowed us, in the last section of the tax, to raise the rate for large owners, with which we put 35 properties with the highest value, to which a 0.65% increase will be applied,” explained Martínez . In this way, 2.3 million euros will be obtained.
Services
From the Public Services area, its manager, the also First Deputy Mayor Guillermo Díaz Guerra, congratulated himself for being part of a government team that shares the philosophy of the Popular Party, which is to lower taxes when citizens need it most. , he argued. “The tax cut is a political seal, that of our party, which will not affect public services because that depends on better or worse management,” he said. He emphasized the fact that the drop in income will be offset by raising taxes on those who have the most. “That is the policy that we have agreed with our government partners, a policy that we have to support and that, furthermore, we do so convinced.” He insisted that the quality of services will not be diminished by the tax cut.
He recalled that his area pays more than 10 million per year for garbage collection and cleaning, as well as what it pays to the Cabildo for the use of the waste plant in Arico, a service the latter, he pointed out, “that next year The Cabildo has already told us that we will have to pay more because they raise the price. So of the 4.3 million that we already pay, we can go to five or six million a year ”.
Evelyn Alonso, as the third leg of the municipal government, said she was “proud” to belong to a government team that works to “help families and also companies to create jobs.” “This is the way to go,” he said.
Reactions
After the announcement by the Santa Cruz City Council, one of the first entities to speak out was the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE). Its general secretary in Tenerife, Pedro Afonso, said that “we businessmen appreciate that the Santa Cruz City Council has taken the step of reducing the taxation of solid waste rates by 100% for SMEs and the self-employed, and also for families. We also value that, to balance, the city council has also updated the IBI of large owners ”. According to Afonso, this measure “puts on the table that, with healthy situations in public administrations, taxes can be reduced, and with that circumstance the economy is reactivated, generating more wealth and employment.”
The CEOE Secretary General concluded by expressing a wish. “We hope that this proposal will be extended to other public institutions, both local and insular, or even the Government of the Canary Islands.”
A future ordinance to reward those who recycle the most
The Councilor for Public Services, Guillermo Día Guerra, affirmed that work is already being done so that, in the future Cleaning Ordinance, the discounts in the garbage rate can be extended, specifically to those families and companies that recycle the most or that make use of the clean points.
