Up to 42% of the Canarian local councils – four out of ten – raised the salaries of their mayors in 2023. Following the local elections on May 28 of that year, whether due to the new municipal official earning more than their predecessor or the re-elected official increasing their pay, it is evident that The expenses related to the mayor’s office rose in the last electoral year in 37 of the 88 councils within the Autonomous Community. This is indicated by the most recent data on Salary Information for Administration Positions (ISPA), released by the Ministry of Public Service. The ISPA shows that first aediles of the Islands – predominantly those who serve on a full-time basis – receive an annual average of 47,816.45 euros. This sum places local council leaders within the elite 10% of citizens with the highest earnings.
As per the statistics from the Tax Agency concerning Personal Income Tax (IRPF), approximately 90% of Canarian taxpayers – around 939,000 – report incomes lower than the nearly 48,000 euros that their mayors earn on average. Therefore, leading the council provides access to that other 10% of taxpayers – roughly 101,000 – who enjoy higher incomes.
The latest ISPA includes data from 67 of the 88 municipalities in the Archipelago, as 21 councils have yet to fulfil their requirement to submit a list of the salaries of their governing officials to the Ministry. In certain cases, the information from the 2022 financial year is absent; in others, that of 2023; and for some, both years’ data are missing. This failure to report, as mandated by the Law on Budgetary Stability and Financial Sustainability, obscures the pay evolution for senior officials in those 21 councils. Among the missing data are some of the most populous areas in the region, such as Telde and Pájara in the province of Las Palmas, or Adeje, Icod de los Vinos, and San Miguel de Abona in the Santa Cruz de Tenerife district.
Nonetheless, the three largest municipalities in the Archipelago have provided their data to the Ministry: those of the two regional capitals and La Laguna. In Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, there was no pay rise: Augusto Hidalgo received a total of 71,400 euros in 2022, the same amount that Hidalgo – who served until the May elections – and his successor, a fellow socialist, Carolina Darias, also received in 2023. In Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Jose Manuel Bermudez, who retained the mayorship after the May 28 elections, earned 75,718.58 euros in 2022 and 79,009.02 euros in 2023, representing an increase of 4.35% which is rather moderate compared to the increases in other councils, yet is slightly above the 3.5% salary adjustment for public employees set for 2023.
Of the more than one million income tax filers in the Islands, 939,000 do not earn as much as their municipal leaders
The increase in pay was more pronounced in La Laguna. The municipal leader, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, received 77,565.46 euros in 2022 and 84,611.34 euros in 2023, marking a rise of 9.08%. In this case, the effective remuneration – The ISPA records the payments that the public official ultimately receives, excluding any distinctions between direct pay and other sums earned, such as for participation in collective bodies – surged by nearly three times the 3.5% increase established for public administration employees.
Beyond Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the trend in mayoral costs among the other five island capitals has varied significantly. Firstly, the councils of San Sebastian de La Gomera and Valverde in El Hierro have not yet submitted all necessary information to the Ministry. Then there is the case of Puerto del Rosario, the capital of Fuerteventura, where Juan Jimenez earned 48,737.44 euros in 2022 and received the exact same amount in 2023 prior to being succeeded by David de Vera after the elections. In Arrecife, however, there was indeed an increase: the mayoralty which cost the residents 69,238.11 euros in 2022, with Astrid Perez at the helm, rose to 72,961.19 euros in 2023, the year when the now president of the regional Parliament handed over leadership of Lanzarote’s capital to Yonathan de León. This represented a 5.38% increase, also exceeding the 3.5% adjustment established for civil servants and public employees.
In Santa Cruz de La Palma, however, the expenses related to the mayoralty decreased in 2023 compared to 2022. Its situation is somewhat unique. In 2022, the leadership was shared between the Popular Juan José Cabrera from January 1 to February 19, and the Socialist Juan José Neris from February 19 following Cabrera’s resignation under a pact made between PP and PSOE in 2020. That year – 2022 – Cabrera and Neris collectively earned 37,850 euros in their roles. Come 2023, Neris was paid 15,493 euros until the elections, and his successor post-elections, Asier Antona, received only 440 euros for being part-time, as he balanced the mayoralty of Santa Cruz de La Palma with a seat in the Congress of Deputies. This resulted in a saving for the residents of Palma, reducing expenses by 57.9%, dropping from 37,850 euros in 2022 to just 15,933 euros – comprising 15,493 euros for Neris and 440 euros for Antona – in 2023. It should be noted, however, that once Antona resigned from his position in the Lower House in 2024, his salary from the municipal treasury is considerably higher than that of his immediate predecessor.
As for the remaining municipalities, the salaries in 2023 varied between 67,866.67 euros in Arona to zeros in Arafo, Barlovento, and Fuencaliente, where the council leaders are or were under a no remuneration regime that year.
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