It is proposed that local entities can allocate the surplus to current spending or investments to meet needs derived from the health crisis
The local government will propose asking the State that City Councils have 100% of the money saved
It also claims mechanisms that prevent the Government of Spain from appropriating the ‘piggy bank’ of the City Councils without agreeing it in the Congress
The local government of Benidorm will propose in the next plenary session of the Corporation to urge the State to authorize the City Councils to have 100% of the 2019 surplus to allocate it to "current expenditure or investment", thus attending to needs arising from the current health crisis, and consequently, the State cannot touch 'the piggy bank' of local entities.
This is reflected in two motions presented by the government chaired by Toni Pérez, in which it is proposed that the use of that money saved by local entities serves to "implement those services, aid and extraordinary measures that allow action against the negative health effects , social and economic aspects of the Covid 19 pandemic ”
In the first of the motions, it is demanded that the necessary regulatory changes be made so that these resources do not compute or affect the spending rule or budget stability.
It includes three other requests to the Government of the Nation. The first, that the terms be extended so that "the Financially Sustainable Investments" assumed from the 2019 surplus "can be executed in 2021", since "the suspension of administrative terms as a result of the state of alarm will mean that many cannot be completed in 2020 ”. On the other hand, the Goverment of Pedro Sánchez is required to "immediately" pay the municipalities the amounts corresponding "to the VAT of the month of December 2017". Thirdly, the Central Government is also urged to demand from the European Institutions that "the new programming of Funds and Initiatives" for the period 2021-2027 "be reoriented and adapted to the reconstruction of local economies with the creation of funds specific ”aimed at municipalities.
In line with the last claim, the Generalitat Valenciana is asked for "extraordinary liquidity funds" so that local entities can "mitigate" the crisis caused by the coronavirus.
In the second of the motions that will be raised in plenary, the Government of Spain is urged to "not use the exceptional powers conferred by the state of alarm, or other legal subterfuges, to appropriate the savings of local entities." Likewise, it is claimed that, if necessary, any change in "any of the laws that affect the autonomy, finances or financial stability of local entities" is agreed in the Congress of Deputies after consensus with the City Councils and is not adopted unilaterally by the Central Goverment.