The Santa Cruz City Council yesterday approved its budgets for 2022, which amount to 284 million euros, 9% more than the one in force. The accounts went ahead only with the vote of the Government team (CC, PP and Evelyn Alonso) and the rejection of the opposition groups, who called them unrealistic and lack of projects that really reach the citizens.
A budget debate in which the main partner of CC, the Popular Party, through its spokesman, Guillermo Díaz Guerra, expressed his disagreement with some accounts that he said were not those of the PP, but that they were the ones that existed. “If you ask me if this is the PP budget, the answer is no, but it is the budget that we are going to approve,” he responded to former mayor Patricia Hernández, who invited him to comment on the numbers for 2022. Díaz Guerra, in a second intervention was more precise. “It is not the best budget, it is not that of the PP, but it is the best that can be done with this plenary composition,” he said.
All after the PSOE pointed out that the announcement of the six million to asphalt 50 streets is not in the accounts of 2022, something that the first deputy mayor acknowledged noting that he did not find them either.
The mayor of the Treasury, Juan José Martínez, who did not speak in plenary session on this matter, affirmed at the end that “there will be enough credit to meet the contracting capacity of the area.”
Among the details revealed by the opposition, made up of the PSOE, Unidas Podemos and Cs, is that the forecast of income from fines for infractions of various municipal ordinances grows by 468%, going from the 860,000 budgeted in 2021 to five million next year. Martínez defended that such an exorbitant increase is justified in the substantial improvement of executive collection.
“In no case will the citizen be persecuted,” he pointed out. This figure, according to the auditor’s report, is not justified, so it does not pronounce whether it is adequate or not, although it does acknowledge that “the palpable improvement in executive collection is a certain fact, that, if maintained in the time, it will allow to reach these collection levels ”.
Tax rebate
Martínez made a long and dense journey through what the Government team defends as “budgets focused on people and economic recovery”, highlighting once again as main milestones the tax reduction already announced for the business garbage rate (subsidized 100% for SMEs), and the increase in IBI to large owners, basically to the Government of the Canary Islands and to the banks, thus increasing the collection for this concept by just over two million, up to 39.
The mayor of Housing also defended that Santa Cruz is among the top five cities, with more than 200,000 inhabitants, that executes the most spending per inhabitant. In addition, he highlighted the investment of 3.5 million in the recovery of historical heritage with interventions in the Castillo de San Andrés, the Hacienda de Cubas, the Palacio de Carta or the City Hall itself. At this point, Martínez announced that the State, through an amendment from Nueva Canarias, will contribute 3.2 million for the rehabilitation of the Masonic Temple, which is just the cost of the intervention calculated by the Consistory.
Socialist Party
The PSOE, through former mayor Patricia Hernández, harshly criticized some accounts that he said “are not credible”, to add that “it is the budget of an exhausted mayor, in which they are presented, year after year, the same plays”. In addition, on the DUSI Anaga assured that the Government team renounces its execution, which should end in 2022, “while annuities are budgeted until 2023.” He also detailed works that have not been budgeted and that have projects such as the Santa María del Mar field, the Tíncer sports center or the disappearance of the game to provide elevators to buildings without accessibility. Likewise, he denounced the reduction in investment in Housing, which, contrary to what the mayor of the Treasury said, Hernández said that it falls to seven million, while the Advertising and Propaganda item grew 36%. This last data was contested by Martínez, who assured that the increase was due to the imposition by Europe of higher spending for the dissemination of the DUSI Anaga.
Likewise, Martínez defended that the placement of elevators is assumed within the ARRUs, because “the truth is that most of the communities that could benefit from this aid have rejected it due to the complexity of its execution.”
UP
From UP, Ramón Trujillo criticized that the commitment to an area such as housing was not enough, as well as the one registered with the social section, also denounced by PSOE and Cs, who affirmed that the IMAS budget is not enough, budgeting six million for social aid when 11 have been spent this year. Trujillo defended the improvement of the bus service, the creation of a municipal renewable energy company or the remuneration of services. The UP spokesperson also criticized what in his opinion is a “lack of plurality” in the media, ensuring that in some, their training is “vetoed”, relating this veto to the City Council’s spending on advertising and propaganda.
CS
Matilde Zambudio (Cs) criticized the creation of positions for specific people, such as that of Evelyn Alonso’s advisor, Enrique Rosales, “with a different salary than other positions in the same category.” As for the numbers, he said that they are those of “a patchwork city model, lacking ideas and full of contradictions, as the auditor’s report points out.” He also questioned that the budget execution of the investments is 52% and affected that the plenary commitment to eliminate the quota of the fire counters is not fulfilled.
