The vast budget surplus that Alcudia Town Hall has accumulated over several years is now put at 120 million euros. No other town hall in Mallorca comes close to having this size of surplus, which deputy mayor and finance councillor, Juan González, has described as "the envy of many municipalities". Envious other town halls may or may not be, citizens scratch their heads and wonder how Alcudia has amassed so much spare cash and fails to spend it.
At last week's council meeting, González added: "No one understands that we have 120 million euros in the bank and we can't spend it." He's dead right. No one does understand, but he offered an explanation and apportioned blame, basically the Pedro Sánchez government and specifically PSOE (González is from the PP), who have created "many problems in preventing this money from reaching the streets". He added: "We must take bold steps to put this money on the streets, as it belongs to the citizens."
If I can offer further explanation, the amassing of this surplus has its roots in the Spanish Government's 2012 budgetary stability rules. The government was then run by the PP, and it did what it was told by Brussels, the consequence of the years of financial crisis. There have been constraints on spending ever since. The Sánchez administration loosened these to a degree during the pandemic, but they otherwise remain in place. The rules therefore apply across the board. But if the rules are the same, why aren't other town halls in a similar position? This is something that Alcudia has never explained.
This is the background to the decision to raise the rubbish tax in 2026. Depending on the property and the ability to recycle, the average tax will increase from eighty euros to up 150 euros, almost double therefore. The reason the PP-led administration has offered for this has to do with the 2024 accounts and an apparent failure to meet the spending rule. This all gets a tad complicated, but it would seem that the town hall overshot by 8.6 million euros, this spending largely having come from all that cash in the bank and having been made in a discretionary manner.
But rules being rules (blame Sánchez is the administration's reasoning), the overspend needs readjusting, and so up will go the rubbish tax from next year. The PSOE socialists in opposition maintain this increase is not the fault of the Sánchez government but can be put down to "chaotic" management by the PP plus Vox and the Unió per Alcudia in coalition. A failure to comply with rules relating to the 2024 budget has forced the administration to restrict spending and allocate a larger amount of revenue to compensate for "a botched job".
PSOE spokesperson Joan Gaspar Vallori argues: "Uncontrolled spending in the millions has been made on fairs and fiestas, bread and circuses, and which could have been avoided." The mayor's "luxuries" will "force the entire municipality to pay more tax". The situation is "incredible", given the 120 million, the surplus having increased since the PP took office in 2023. But Juan González would doubtless counter that Vallori doesn't understand the surplus.
He will understand. Both of them will understand. They've been in town hall circles for enough years. It's everyone else who can't understand.