Never again.
At the beginning of December, the budget for the year 2023 of Ile-de-France Mobilités was finalized in extremis thanks to a State subsidy of 200 million euros.
Region, City of Paris, departments... local authorities have also returned to the pot.
And users have been strongly put to contribution with the increase in January of the Navigo Pass by almost 12% (84.10 euros per month against 75.20 euros until then).
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Aware that this tinkered assembly will only have a time, Valérie Pécresse, who chairs IDFM (Île-de-France Mobilités), held a meeting on Monday for the financing of transport in the Ile-de-France region.
The goal?
Find a more robust economic model while IDFM's expenses will increase between 2024 and 2030.
"
An additional two hundred million euros will be needed in operation for the Paris Olympic Games"
, estimates the general manager of IDFM, Laurent Probst .
To this must be added the expenses related to the operation of the Grand Paris Express which will include four new metro lines (15,16,17 and 18).
The IGEDD (General Inspectorate for the Environment and Sustainable Development) has done the accounts: by 2030, this will cost IDFM 973 million per year.
Transport Minister Clément Beaune does not deny the problem.
But he decided to hurry slowly.
It will ask the General Inspectorate of Finance and the General Inspectorate of the Environment and Sustainable Development to discuss IDFM's financing needs and potential new resources "
including, where appropriate, resources additional taxes.
The same work had been carried out at the beginning of 2020. But it did not take into account the consequences of the health crisis and inflation.
This new report should be released in mid-April.
"
The objective is to reach decisions that can be taken into account in the preparation of the finance bill for 2024 in the summer
," explains Clément Beaune.
The different parties have already worked out scenarios to get out of the financial impasse.
All agree on one point: several measures will be necessary to ensure the financial balance of IDFM.
"
An increase in the Navigo Pass of 2%
to 3% per year may be acceptable if the service returns to the expected level
," says Marc Pélissier, president of Fnaut (National Federation of Transport User Associations) Ile-de-France.
The increase in the Mobility Payment paid by companies in areas richly equipped with public transport also makes sense.
If the representatives of the users do not exclude that the customers pay public transport a little more expensive, it is that the Passe Navigo is cheaper than its equivalents in large metropolises like London or Berlin.
Companies in the line of sight
"
We must accept the increase in the Mobility Payment
," said the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.
And the approach of Barcelona, which has implemented an Amazon tax on parcel deliveries intended to finance transport, seems very interesting to me.
“But, ultimately, it is Valérie Pécresse who is on the front line in this affair: as president of the Ile-de-France Region, she has the upper hand in transport.
Transformation of the Covid debt into a subsidy, transfer to the Société du Grand Paris of the pre-operation costs of the Grand Paris Express lines… The elected official is waiting for a boost from the executive to save money.
"
The State has the power to lower the bill for IDFM by several hundred million euros (up to 660 million!) by 2030
,” summarizes Valérie Pécresse, who also wants to provide her organization with new revenue.
Concretely, it defends the idea of taxing four types of public who benefit from the extension of the public transport network (tourists with an increase in the tourist tax, beneficiaries of land value gains next to new stations, companies with more than eleven employees and players in commercial logistics).
“
These four avenues can bring in up to 1.5 billion euros per year by 2030
,” she points out.
Obviously, companies will oppose with all their might the increase in their contribution.
“
The mobility payment is already increasing mechanically with the increase in the payroll
», sighs Dominique Restino, president of the CCIP (Chamber of commerce and industry of Paris).
The government has a few months to decide between these different options.