Do the elected representatives of your municipalities manage public funds like a “good family mayor”?
This is what is verified each year by the Association Contribuables associés, which campaigns for the reduction of public expenditure and the fight against the waste of taxes.
The 2020 edition, based on 2019 figures, which we unveil exclusively, scrutinizes the lifestyle of our nearly 36,000 towns and villages in France.
The target: the current expenses of a municipality such as municipal agents, grants to associations, water and electricity, landscaping or social assistance, nurseries and support for the elderly.
And we can add communication and advertising expenses, compensation for elected officials, the July 14 fireworks display, Christmas decorations and end-of-year greetings.
Please note, investment expenses (to build a school, a media library, etc.) are not taken into account.
How is your municipality situated in relation to agglomerations of the same size?
Our simulator invites you to find out.
But already, the cities of the Paris region seem poor performers if we examine the top 20 cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants who spend the most money, where they monopolize ... 17 places!
Nanterre, Levallois-Perret and Rueil-Malmaison (Hauts-de-Seine) but also Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne) share, like last year, the first places while Saint-Ouen (Seine- Saint-Denis) made its debut in this hit parade.
And the operating budget per inhabitant of Paris has exploded, going from 2,074 euros in 2018 to 2,706 euros in 2019. "The political culture of intervention in public services is stronger in Ile-de-France", explains Philippe Laurent , the mayor of Sceaux (Hauts-de-Seine) and the secretary general of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF).
Big budget does not mean bad municipal management
“This is a legacy of what was called municipal socialism in the interwar period,” continues the mayor.
Subsequently, when right-wing majorities took over from local executives, they retained this culture of interventionism.
But beware: just because a city has a large budget does not mean it is synonymous with mismanagement.
In addition, if the cities of Ile-de-France, and those of Hauts-de-Seine in particular, have a lot of expenses
(Editor's note: in Sceaux, the amount per inhabitant reaches 1,796 euros, i.e. a score of 2/20 ),
they also have a lot of recipes.
"
It's true, a "big budget" automatically results in a bad grade, but without saying anything about the quality of municipal management.
In a particular city, it can be synonymous with a real offer of services to the inhabitants;
in another, it may indeed reflect a misuse of public funds.
On the other hand, one can note the deep disparity of wealth between the Parisian agglomeration in the broad sense and the rest of the territory.
In the regions, as soon as we move away from a certain number of major economic centers (Lille, Nantes, Lyon, Bordeaux, etc.), the budgets of the municipalities melt.
So much so that the good student cities of peripheral France are also largely those ... of the France of yellow vests, whose difficulties in accessing public services were among the grievances.
The bill should climb with the health crisis
In fact, far from Ile-de-France, the management of public funds seems more parsimonious.
Mamoudzou, the largest city in Mayotte, prances ahead of the best students, like last year.
Ditto for Brest and Quimper (Finistère), Pessac (Gironde) or even Villeurbanne (Rhône).
New arrival?
Cholet (Maine-et-Loire), silver medalist, and who was however far away the previous year.
Next year, the bill should increase everywhere in France.
Because elected officials had to spend urgently, often without counting, to buy masks for residents and agents, install Plexiglas panels or provide hydroalcoholic gel.
Not to mention the municipalities whose budget has been put in the red by the consequences of the pandemic, such as mountain resorts.
But this is not the only budget line to scrutinize to get an idea of the financial health of your city.
Associated taxpayers also dissects each year the levels of debt and taxation of municipalities.
The range of the cost of local taxes per inhabitant can thus make you dizzy: 51 euros in Mamoudzou and 1,231 euros in Levallois-Perret.
