The local government of the City Council of La Laguna, constituted by the progress pact (PSOE, Unidas se can and Avante La Laguna), yesterday presented its budgets for 2022, which grow more than 15%, up to 192,564,069 euros, in the consolidated one, which represents an increase of 24 million compared to 2021. The municipal accounts that will reach the plenary session next Wednesday for debate and approval.
The budgets are “expansive, whose main objective is the recovery of the productive, business and, above all, social fabric of our municipality,” said the mayor, the socialist Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, who emphasized that “they are making history again, because they are the most social ”that the municipality has had. Thus, the local councilor pointed to the growth of areas such as social welfare, investments, commerce or culture.
For his part, the Councilor for Finance and Economic Affairs, Alejandro Marrero, affirmed that La Laguna will have a budget in 2022 “oriented towards growth and recovery, in which investments are prioritized, since we understand that they are fundamental at this time. to achieve the consolidation of the economic recovery and greater employability ”. In addition, “it defends the rights of the most vulnerable sectors, becoming the most social budget in the history of La Laguna.”
The mayor announced that the consolidated budget, which includes the City Council and the autonomous bodies, Muvisa and Urbanismo, amounts to 192,564,069 euros, which represents an increase of more than 15% (more than 24 million), while that of only the City Council is 186,547,299 euros.
Areas
By areas, Marrero explained that Social Welfare amounted to 24,276,537 euros, 27% more than in 2021 and with an accumulated growth of 51.27% since 2019. He also pointed out that by 2022 it will be allocated around six million For the promotion and management of public housing, through the Social Welfare area and Muvisa, rent aids and projects related to the social need for housing will also increase, in order to address the housing emergency in the municipality. “Social policies account for more than 13% of the municipal budget,” said the councilor.
Meanwhile, the Citizen Security area grows by more than three million (17% more) to 22,893,339 euros, guaranteeing the provision of 41 new places in the Local Police, items for material and more than half a million for aid to the sector of the taxi. “Currently there is the selection process for the 41 previous positions, therefore, by 2022 we will have more than 80 new agents, and it must be remembered that since 2013 not a single agent was incorporated,” Marrero valued.
Regarding investments, “they have the largest budget in the last 15 years”, with more than 21 million in Chapter 6, and a growth of 87%, for areas such as Works and Infrastructures or Historical Heritage.
Thus, he broke down that the Works and Infrastructures area will have 19,775,019 euros, which represents an increase of 57% compared to 2021 (seven million more), with a greater provision for improvement and maintenance of roads and reform works, expansion and improvement in public spaces, schools and sports facilities. While the Historical Heritage accounts also grow more than 30%.
Likewise, the Environment budget amounts to 1,763,351 euros, which is 167% more, to face climate change and fight energy poverty, “with the aim of multiplying them by four through European funds “Said the mayor.
Regarding the area of Trade and Economic Promotion, it will have 1,968,228 euros, 49% more, almost 650,000 euros more, an area that has accumulated a growth of 105% since 2020, “firm in the commitment to our freelancers and companies”, the councilor valued. Meanwhile, the budget for Culture increases by 30% to 2,778,698 euros, and that of the Autonomous Organism for Musical Activities and Culture grows by more than 250,000 euros.
“In addition, we have increased Chapter II by more than nine million, corresponding to expenditures on goods and services, with the aim of improving basic public services,” added Alejandro Marrero.
Asked about how the increase in the accounts for next year has been achieved, the councilor explained that, “at the income level, the growth will be a little more than 7% of income derived from different sources, such as the participation of income from the State or the Canarian financing block, and we also have a greater forecast in the ICIO ”. “The other 7%, initially, at the time of the budget will go with long-term financing, about 14 million more or less, which will not carry out this operation mainly because we have the capacity to modify the source of financing, therefore, this means that we will end 2022 with zero debt, “he added.
“We have worked to configure a budget adapted to priorities in the current scenario, in which we have not chosen to increase rates and taxes, but on the contrary, we have promoted all those actions that help mitigate the breakdown of economic and social cohesion, together with impulse measures, with the aim of consolidating the economic recovery. It is a budget that is made based on the needs of citizens and we encourage them to continue transferring them to us ”, he concluded.
For his part, the councilor for Social Welfare, and spokesperson for United Can, Rubens Ascanio, stressed that it is a budget “at the height of the needs of the moment”, which “faces the social, housing, climate, and inequality emergency , of the needs of the most vulnerable groups, of inclusion, unemployment, mobility and small and medium businesses ”.
Ascanio recalled that in 2019, when they came to the local government, the average social spending in La Laguna was 114 euros per inhabitant and year; while in 2022, only with the Social Welfare area, it will rise to 150 euros per inhabitant, “and if we add the rest of the areas with social policies, we speak of more than 170 euros,” he emphasized.
The councilor valued that the 2022 budget “takes care of social care and housing policies like never before,” with an increase for housing, aid and in the items for care and conciliation services.
“A feminist budget that takes care of equal opportunities and diversity, that favors and takes care of sports, youth, education and employment like never before, with the launch of the first youth house in the municipality, youth employment programs and an increase of 3.5 million in extracurricular activities ”, added Ascanio.
The councilor valued that “2022 is a great challenge but we are sure that we will achieve it with that collective effort that we have made, with that municipal project that we have in common. Despite the diversity of the organizations that make up the current Government, we are very clear about the Laguna towards which we want to go, and all the external support that we are going to receive will be key ”, he concluded.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Spatial Planning and Promotion of Local Development, and Avante spokesperson, Santiago Pérez, expressed his “satisfaction with the solidity and reliability of this Government and with the degree of compliance of a Government of progressive inspiration that came to replace 30 years of mismanagement ”.
Santiago Pérez stressed that the Urban Planning area, in these moments of crisis, “must be a factor, within the law, of reactivating the construction sector.” He also valued the growth of the Rural Development area, which was “insignificant “In the past” and a very personal commitment of ours and mine was to turn it into an area of authentic support for farmers “, already exceeding the 750,000 euros budget.
