More than 4,000 additional nursery places, a 100% bicycle city, five urban forests, 15,000 new housing offered to the middle and working classes, 30,000 renovated social housing… These campaign promises from candidate Hidalgo (PS), there are at one year, can they all be honored?
Internally, concern is growing as the municipal majority is negotiating the Mandate Investment Program (PIM).
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As early as January, a letter from the deputy in charge of finances, Paul Simondon, to the other members of the executive began to worry some elected officials.
In this letter that we obtained, Mr. Budget evokes a "context of health, social and economic crisis where the financial leeway of the City are reduced and their evolution still uncertain".
"I do not see how all the projects promised during the campaign will see the light of day"
Rigor and responsibility are also the two key words that were hammered out this Tuesday morning during the strategic budget committee chaired by Anne Hidalgo herself.
“The directorates have all received very strict budgetary instructions.
With the figures announced, I do not see how all the projects promised during the campaign will see the light of day, ”worries a deputy chief of staff in the corridors of the Town Hall.
"In terms of health, I do not see how, in view of the health crisis, the budget could be reduced", already warns Anne Souyris, deputy (EELV) in charge of public health, environmental health, the fight against pollution and risk reduction.
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Already, old projects seem threatened.
“I would like to draw your attention to the investment projects launched or simply arbitrated during the previous term of office.
While most of them must be continued, some may nevertheless have become obsolete, less suited to the objectives of the term of office or simply less priority.
You will be able, after analyzing the costs already incurred, to propose their reorientation, or even their abandonment in order to free up new budgetary margins ”, thus proposed at the beginning of the year the assistant in charge of finances to his colleagues of the executive.
What old projects will go by the wayside?
What promises of the 2020 campaign could be revised downwards?
The Monsieur Budget of the Hôtel de Ville is rather elusive.
Arbitrations are ongoing
“The choices on investment, we will announce them as part of the Mandate Investment Program.
We are still in the process of discussing, arbitrating in order to prioritize and carry out the most important projects which are essential in the objectives of the mandate on the climate plan, the priority of working-class neighborhoods… ”replies without further precision Paul Simondon.
“What is true is that the health situation has a very strong impact on the city's finances.
In 2020, the cost amounted to 800 million euros.
And there is no mechanism put in place by the State to compensate for the loss of revenue, ”prefers to remind Paul Simondon.
“Support for communities is very weak.
And for the moment, the government has not set up a framework for discussing the stimulus plan.
While in the United States, with the Biden plan, New York receives $ 6 billion in addition to what New York State receives.
We in Paris have no visibility, ”regrets the deputy in charge of finances.
