2023-10-21 05:09:00
In the opposition in Wallonia, the former Minister of the Budget (2009-2014), André Antoine (Les Engagés) who will leave political life at the end of the legislature, is alarmist. He looked at the financial situation of Belgium and each of its entities. He considers that faced with the possible return of budgetary austerity measures decided at European level, “more than others, we will have to learn to no longer spend beyond our revenues as has been the case for several years !”.
The Walloon government is still making some savings: “Supporting the debt is the most important”, according to Di Rupo
Never seen
The Walloon MP uses the latest known Walloon figures to illustrate his point. “The 2023 budget presented revenues of 16.551 billion euros once morest expenditures of 22.341 billion. For the 2024 financial year, the government is further increasing its debt by the maximum debt authorized by the regional treasury committee, namely 2.5 billion while randomly speculating on a cash surplus of 700 million within institutions pararegional without worrying too much regarding whether these means do not correspond to pre-existing budgetary commitments which will have to be financially honored sooner or later!” And he adds that with “this new tranche of 2024 loans provisionally stopped at 2.5 billion, the Walloon consolidated debt will exceed 43 billion from next year if we include the Walloon share in the hospital debt (of 4, 8 billion) as well as the flood insurance debt of 1.4 billion. With such a staggering debt, we will approach a debt-to-own revenue ratio of almost 250%, unprecedented in the history of our regional political institutions.”
And if we add to this the finances of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation which lives with a closed-envelope budget despite increasing costs every year, the picture becomes increasingly gloomy. “Here too, debts are accumulating to reach, in 2024, nearly 14.5 billion compared to 8.4 billion in 2019. At this rate of annual deficit, experts predict a debt of more than 18 billion in 2026 without “integrate the billion borrowed for school buildings nor a certain number of reforms decided today and which will affect community finances through their planned expenditure from 2025 and following”.
As such, the plan of the presidents of the French-speaking majority parties (the same as in Wallonia) to transfer certain skills from the Federation to the Regions is very vague on the question of financial resources. Will the transfer of these skills be accompanied by financial means or will these be covered by the regions? This is fundamental, of course, if it is a question of giving breathing space to the Federation.
Six billion in local debts
Finally, André Antoine discusses the finances of the municipalities and cities of Wallonia. “Belgian local authorities present a total debt of 6 billion to be included in the calculation of the consolidated debt of the Belgian house to determine the overall debt of 60% of GDP according to European regulations”.
For him, we need to review things from top to bottom and on all levels. At the federal level he mentions a tax reform, “favoring the net salary in the pocket”, a reform of the labor market to increase economic activity, etc. As for Wallonia, it will have to think regarding abandoning some of its policies. Otherwise, he finds it difficult to see how we would do without new taxes. “We will have to make courageous decisions,” he concludes. With the exception of Flanders, future governments are concerned and will have to work together, according to him.
1697877877
#André #Antoine #taxes #ruled #Wallonia
