Benidorm definitively approves the budget for 2021

The plenary session of Benidorm City Council has definitively approved with the vote of the local government the municipal budget for 2021 in a telematic, extraordinary and urgent session. The councilor for the Treasury, Aida García Mayor, has indicated that after this process it is possible to “make the municipal aid against Covid-19, the nominative subsidies included in the budget and the investments planned for this year viable, many of them affected by subsidies from European funds ”. The approval proposal included the rejection of the only allegation received to the budget, presented by the spokesman for the socialist municipal group, Rubén Martínez, based on the report drawn up by the Intervention area.

The municipal budget for 2021 reaches 115,470,629.53 euros in the expenses section and 116,632,811.50 euros in the income section, yielding a surplus of just over 1.1 million. As García Mayor already indicated during the provisional approval of the accounts for this year and the mayor, Toni Pérez, recalled today, they arise in a “situation conditioned by the pandemic” and guide the City Council's action to contribute to “overcome the crisis ", Helping" the resident population, the families of Benidorm "and collaborating" in the reactivation of the local economy ".

The budget reserves 6.1 million euros for direct aid to families and the productive fabric, to which are added the rest of resources for expenses and social care, such as scholarships or Social Welfare and Employment benefits and other areas up to reach a historical maximum of investment in social spending of 25 million euros. In addition, these items are expandable, so your appropriation can be increased throughout the year depending on the needs.

The mayor has stressed that with the definitive approval of the budget, the processing of aid against Covid-19 can be made viable, which “will begin to arrive in cascades”; among them those arranged for families and whose bases will be approved in the coming days and for which an initial allocation of 2.5 million euros has been reserved.

Nominative subsidies included in the budget are also released, and which reach, among other entities, the Red Cross, the Double Love Association and the Society for the Protection of Animals and Plants.

The same occurs with investments, in many cases conditional on strict compliance with execution deadlines as they have grants from other administrations, and which stand at 24.2 million euros. Of these, 15,093,325 euros will be provided directly by the City Council -part of them through loans-, while the remaining 9,498,408.10 euros come from contributions from other public administrations and from the development agents of the partial plans El Murtal and Industrial and linked to the developments of these soils.

The increase in investments is marked by the promotion of projects that have subsidies from the various administrations, both European, national, regional and provincial to initiate the actions included in the EDUSI or those financed by the Institute for Diversification and Savings of Energy. In total, more than 7.5 million euros.

Regarding the Participatory Budget, in 2021 it reaches an investment record with 605,000 euros, above the 5% set by local regulations, and which will be allocated to the proposals transferred by the neighbors.

Following today's plenary approval, the 2021 budget will take effect effectively once it is published next week in the Official Gazette of the Province (BOP).