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It's time to take stock.
At the next Bordeaux city council, on March 7, the city's budget will be submitted to the vote of elected officials.
The budget orientation report (ROB) for the 2023 financial year, which
Le Figaro
was able to consult, provides for a property tax increase of 4.53% for Bordeaux owners.
Not yet put to the vote, this decision is already strongly criticized by the opposition.
Despite the sobriety measures that have been taken, with in particular the reduction of public lighting at night, the savings made (2.75 million euros) come up against the tripling of the gas and electricity bill (+11 .6 million euros) and doubling the cost of public lighting (+2 million euros).
To justify its choice, the town hall of Bordeaux specifies that this tax increase will make it possible to "
deal with the inflationary shock, maintain public services and make a success of the ecological and social transition
", pointing out that the city's energy bill has been "
almost multiplied by three
”.
One in three Bordeaux residents will be affected
Bordeaux depends on 57% of the property tax for its operating revenue.
This announced increase will bring the new rate to 48.48%, which would yield 274.11 million euros in 2023, an increase of more than 10% (25.58 million) compared to 2022. About one in three Bordeaux residents would be concerned, the municipality estimating at 32% the percentage of inhabitants who own their homes.
The choice put forward by the town hall is to "
maintain the ambition of its transition program
", by deciding "
to combine the seriousness of budgetary management and the maintenance of an offensive program of development of the public service, even if it is expensive
.
In addition, the city of Bordeaux maintains that its debt reduction capacity will still be under 10 years by 2026, and that this increase would only place it in fifteenth position of the 42 cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants by tax rate.
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This increase could however not be felt on the wallet of the owners of Bordeaux, estimates the municipality.
“
For practically all types of property, the increase in property tax is lower than the gain associated with the reduction in housing tax
”, calculates the town hall.
"
A 25m² apartment of average value, subject to a property tax of €471 in 2022
" will, for example, see an increase of €56 in 2023, but "
if the owner still paid 35% of his residence tax in 2022, he notices at the same time a drop of €170 in his “tax bill” and even €308 if we add the disappearance of the audiovisual license fee
”.
“They choose the easy way”
But these calculations do not convince the opponents of the mayor.
At the end of January, during the last city council, Nicolas Florian, former mayor of Bordeaux (Les Républicains) and president of the opposition group Bordeaux Ensemble, already accused the majority of wanting to increase taxes, regretting that the vote for the city budget was "
constantly postponed since the fall
".
An intuition that has come true.
“
This decision is a form of laziness on the part of the manager
”, deplores today Nicolas Florian with Le
Figaro
.
“
They are choosing the easy way, which is to increase taxes
”.
A “
Pavlovian choice
” according to the chosen one, which would even be of an ideological nature.
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The elected representatives of Bordeaux Ensemble proposed their own plan a few weeks ago, to save 5 million euros in 2023. “
Today we have the means, by making some savings and by reviewing a certain number of public policies, generate savings that offset the increase in expenses and to initiate a cleanliness plan and a safety plan
,” says Nicolas Florian.
For opposition deputy and municipal councilor Thomas Cazenave (Renaissance), this tax increase is “
a very bad blow to the purchasing power of Bordeaux residents
”.
The elected official judges that the State has "
made efforts to improve the purchasing power of the French and protect them from the evolution of energy prices
", by "
the abolition of the housing tax and the audiovisual license fee
”.
But according to him, "
the savings that the State allows on one side, Pierre Hurmic takes them on the other
".
Finally, the MP stresses that "
the tax weapon is a permanent weapon
", predicting that once taxes are increased, they will not decrease, "
even if the prices of
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