"Government's extraordinary effort in today's meeting with Municipalities and Provinces - writes Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri on his twitter profile - : 3.5 billion fund in the April decree to accommodate the requests of the mayors at the forefront in contrasting effects of Covid-19. Together we will overcome the crisis ".
"We appreciate the government's effort, an injection of 3 billion euros, a cure for the cities - said the president of the ANCI, Antonio Decaro -. But these resources risk being in any case insufficient compared to the drop in revenue that we mayors estimate in about 5 billion euros. Therefore, recognizing a significant effort, we asked for and obtained a monitoring table to keep under control the losses of the Municipalities that will depend on the times of the lockdown ".
"The revenues of the Municipalities are falling, and will inexorably fall, based on the continuation of the stop phase and the time necessary for a real restart - continues Decaro -. At the moment for the month of March, the first of lockdown, we have found a decrease 53 per cent for tax revenue and 22 per cent for tariff revenue. Numbers that tell us that these resources are fundamental. It cannot be forgotten that Municipalities function exactly like businesses: income and expenditure regulate the budget and therefore the sustainability of expenses. But the expenses of a Municipality mean services for citizens: waste collection, public transport, social services. That is why when we talk about what is needed by Municipalities we must keep in mind that either we guarantee the balance of institutions' budget or citizens are told that essential services will no longer be insured. "
"A positive meeting in which we had from the Minister of Economy Roberto Gualtieri we had important reassurances that in the next decree law there will be clear responses for provinces, municipalities and metropolitan cities - said the president of Upi Michele de Pascale -. 3.5 billion fund (of which 500 million for provinces and metropolitan cities, ed.) to start covering the revenues that we are losing due to the emergency "covid. "The monitoring table has also been given the go ahead, which we requested that will go on for the duration of the crisis and will serve to clarify the balance sheet. As UPI - he concludes - we have also presented to the Government our proposal for an Investment Plan on roads and high schools, to sell two billion euros and give a strong boost to the recovery ".