Zaragoza en Común (ZeC) has denounced that the Government team of the Zaragoza City Council formed by PP and Ciudadanos is collecting more than 14 million euros in taxes of which it had budgeted for the year 2021 and, therefore, is not complying with its “Mantra” that was to “lower taxes.” “When this year’s budget was approved, one of the big ideas that this government wanted to convey was that they were going to lower taxes. And also specific such as the Real Estate Tax (IBI). We are at December 9, there are still three weeks of budget execution, but we are seeing that there is an increase in collection due to fees ”, criticized the councilor for training, Alberto Cubero.
Something that ZeC qualifies as “fiscal hypocrisy” when, after knowing the collection data as of November 30, 2021, an increase in the amount generated is “evidenced” compared to what is foreseen in the IBI items or traffic fines, “Those that directly touch the pockets of Zaragozans,” said Cubero. According to the data provided by the training, the City Council has collected 7.5 million euros more with the IBI than reflected in the municipal accounts and four million more than last year. A piece of information that “puts in evidence the PP-Cs Government and its Minister of Finance, María Navarro, who in the presentation of the tax ordinances assured that the receipt of this rate would drop a little.”
Cubero has also put on the table the collection data of the Tax on Constructions, Installations and Works (ICIO), of more than three million euros and 25% more than expected, and the income from traffic or circulation fines , which as of November 30 have been 4.4 million euros more than budgeted, with an increase of 44% “not yet finished the year.”
The mayor of ZeC has encouraged citizens to “look at their IBI receipt, to compare it with last year and 2019, and they will see how it has risen by around 2% on average.” He has also pointed out that 50% more is being collected in traffic fines. “The same people who defend lowering taxes on the rich then raise tax revenues. It is collected from those who have the least, and it is a government that uses administrations to redistribute wealth ”, criticized Cubero. He has also mentioned the 4.3 million euros “extra” that the Government of Spain paid to the Zaragoza City Council for subsidies for public transport. Despite these collections, “the government team maintains its austerity policy, leaving without executing works in popular neighborhoods and having reduced the municipal workforce by 156 workers,” has settled.
