In the aftermath of the municipal elections, the elected officials most appreciated by the French intend to be at the heart of the revival of the country. When the campaign resumed after the confinement, the programs of the candidates still vying for the second round in 5000 French municipalities quickly reoriented themselves around the management of the economic and social crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
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But if the mayors hope to satisfy the expectations of concerned citizens, are they still enough to maneuver to boost local consumption and support businesses in their municipality? In the French administrative mille-feuille, local elected officials have indeed lost part of their prerogative in matters of economic decisions. While mayors have a deep knowledge of businesses and territories, a certain number of strategic skills have been transferred to the regions and intermunicipal authorities in recent years.
The voluntarism of the winners of these last municipal elections could also come up against the backdrop of tensions on public finances and the fall in municipal tax revenues. According to estimates last May, the epidemic has already cost mayors some 14 billion euros.
Falling fiscal power
“ When citizens vote for their mayor, they must have the power to act. However, for a few years now, the trend has been a loss of fiscal power for local elected representatives, ”defends Fabien Tastet, president of the Association of Senior Territorial Officials (AATF). On the fiscal side, mayors do not decide on local government spending and cannot adjust the corporate tax base.
After the professional tax in 2010, the municipalities lost, in 2019, 80% of the housing tax at the national level. These declining tax revenues have contributed to reducing their room for maneuver and their financial autonomy. “Out of the 240 billion euros in local budgets, once the housing tax reform has been carried out, only about 40 billion“ real local taxes ” remain . That is to say, taxes over which elected officials have the power to rate, ”explains Fabien Tastet.
If these local taxes have been replaced by endowments from the State, financed therefore by national taxes, the mayor of Sceaux Philippe Laurent ensures that the evolution of these endowments does not follow the evolution that the taxation could have followed. " In general, there have been losses, " says the mayor, who is also chairman of the finance committee of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF).
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Territory Development
Freshly re-elected for a fourth term in the second round of municipal elections, the mayor of Sceaux says that “ the competence to support the economy at the level of town halls is ultimately relatively weak. There is no longer much that is decided on the scale of the municipality itself ”.
Since the law on the new territorial organization of the Republic (NOTRe) of August 2015, the regions have been entrusted with competence in matters of economic development. The latter are now developing the regional economic development, innovation and internationalization scheme (SRDEII). A large number of prerogatives have also been transferred to the inter-municipal level. For example, the local urban plans (PLU), voted by the mayors, were transmitted to the inter-municipal authorities by the law of March 24, 2014 called " for access to housing and renovated town planning ". Inter-municipal authorities also deal with questions related to the implementation of technology and the employment pool in the territories.
However, mayors enjoy an essential role in shaping the planning of their territory and encouraging the establishment of strategic infrastructure. In addition to setting up and supporting companies and factories in their municipality, they are mainly responsible for issuing the precious building and renovation permits. With regard to collective equipment and public works, a third of the total public investment in France is made by the municipalities.
In addition, on the issue of social housing, the organizations are dependent on various administrations, including town halls. Decisions relating to energy renovation policies are generally the result of collaboration between the municipalities and the State, where the mayor often positions himself as a project leader for citizens.
Lack of suitable tools to overcome the crisis
Mayors have been on the front line in managing the health crisis. Like the mayor of Sceaux, many elected officials regretted the absence of " suitable tools " and " levers of concrete action " so that elected officials could respond more effectively on the ground. In the first weeks of the economic crisis, the association of mayors of France had also proposed that the municipalities could, for a limited time, regain capacities for direct aid to businesses. Because it is the region which is the leader in the fields of subsidies, and not the public authorities.
" The government opposed our request and this was damaging for very small economic players, " says Philippe Laurent. To get around the fact that the municipalities do not have the right to pay direct aid to businesses, the mayors have found clever ways to support local commerce by obtaining, for example from the prefecture, only special funds, financed by the city. , can be distributed in the form of vouchers.
In addition, mayors have retained the power to grant tax exemptions to businesses and to implement various support measures. The latest example to date is the extension of the café and restaurant terraces to boost the activity of these companies. Some municipalities have also reallocated public space for the benefit of soft traffic in urban planning operations deemed tactical.
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Finally, if the mayor is not always legitimized in the economic strategy of the city, his involvement with local businesses is not disputed. Beyond the rights conferred on him, he remains an influential figure in the local landscape, playing a unifying role between the different departments of the departments. A keen connoisseur of its fabric of businesses, mayors are also capable of exerting pressure on the state and fighting against factory closings.
Empower mayors
In recent months, some mayors have deplored the lack of articulation between communities and the state, linked in particular to a " bureaucratic functioning of institutions ", says a local elected representative of a municipality. “ This prevented us from acting quickly at the dawn of the crisis. Local actors should have been empowered right away and let them organize, ”he says. Another subject of perplexity, the redundancy of administrative services sometimes slows down the decision-making of local authorities. In addition to the royal services which deal with risk management, " the prefect also has administrative services by his side, which often duplicate those of local authorities, " explains Fabien Tastet.
In a document formulating around twenty proposals to promote recovery, the president of the AATF recommends giving more freedom to mayors in the economic field. The association, which notably performs a lobbying function with the public authorities, suggests, for example, that local authorities can temporarily return to the capital of companies. " This would save small local businesses struggling because of the crisis, but whose model is reliable, while having the possibility of imposing counterparties if necessary ."