Pere Aragonès already has what is likely to be his last budget in parliament before the elections. They were received this Wednesday by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Natàlia Mas, with the question of whether the common people will support them like the PSC. As usual, the new regional accounts in 2024 will be the largest (43,673 million, 9.6% more) in the history of the Generalitat, although this year they will break an upward trend in social spending: education, health and other chapters of the welfare state will account for 72.6% of total spending, six tenths less than last year, although the absolute number is increasing. The government assures that this fall in the peso is due to the increase in funds to combat the drought of 1,045 million euros and is faced with a higher interest payment, due to the fact that the loan portfolio does not stop growing (will 86,568 million reach, 400 million more) and interest rates have increased. A total of 1,372 million in interest will be paid, compared to 782 million last year. It's the largest amount of the decade.
However, for the budget project to be implemented, the government must convince En Comú Podem, which is completely opposed to giving its consent unless Aragonès guarantees that it will paralyze the Hard Rock gaming macrocomplex in Vila-seca and Salou. This position is in complete contrast to that of the Socialists, who want to secure the Tarragona Macrocasino and have also reached an agreement with the government, estimated at around 250 million, according to the Generalitat. Despite their doubts, everything indicates that the Republicans support the project, since they were the ones who validated the license that allows it and are aware that they risk millions of dollars in compensation if they complete a project in that Hard Rock wants to invest more than 1,000 million euros. This project has no items in the 2024 budget, nor do the agreements negotiated by the pro-independence parties of the PSOE during the investiture negotiations have any impact: neither debt relief (15,000 million from the Autonomous Liquidity Fund) nor part of the debt will be canceled. nor the analysis of a unique financing for Catalonia.
For now, the majority of the resources that the Generalitat will have at its disposal in 2024 will continue to come from the current financing model (84%), which offers 17% more resources this year. 14% comes from the Generalitat's own and transferred taxes, which will decrease this year by 2.5% due to the decline in the real estate sector and therefore from the collection of taxes on property transfers and documented legal acts, which will be reduced this year by 5 .7% and 10.9% respectively. They represent the main receipt of own funds (2,457 million) and this decrease will mean 188 million less cash this year. The Generalitat estimates that the year will end with a deficit of 0.1%, which represents an additional margin of 293 million and explains part of the increase in debt. This year, the European Next Generation Mechanism funds are not counted, as was the case in the last two years, as they are already in the execution phase.
Although social spending is losing weight in budgets compared to last year, all departments are seeing an increase in their planned spending as the pie continues to grow. Health care is the highest budgeted at 12,059 million, 5.6% more than last year. In this department, the Generalitat is aware that there has always been a mismatch between the budget and what is ultimately spent and that to cover the difference, budgeted items of transversal or emergency funds are usually used during the year, which Also the case is so-called “displaced spending” spending – in 2023, for example, 11,635 million were budgeted for healthcare, but last November the spending had already risen to 14,157 million. However, the Generalitat decides not to foresee this imbalance from the start, although it recognizes that it is systematic. However, in these 2024 budgets there is an extraordinary fund of 800 million already reserved to compensate for part of this discrepancy between the budget and the overspending in the health sector.
Education is the second largest department with the highest budget expenditure at 7,508 million, 10% more than last year. And in the area of social rights the budget is 3,612 million, 8.7% more. Of the three branches of the welfare state, social rights have grown the most since 2020 (35%, health and education each 32%). Outside the social sector, the Ministry of Territory is the one with the most expenditure (2,462 million, 11.5% more), followed by the Ministry of the Interior (1,924 million, 6.1% more), Research and Universities (1,682 million, 6.5% more) and Economy and Labor (1,472 million, 9.2% more). The department whose budgeted expenditure increases the most is Culture (which, at 566 million, increases by 19.5% compared to the previous year), in line with the objective of increasing the weight of this department in relation to the total by up to 2%. of the budget (the 2024 annual accounts still do not reach this target as the weight of culture remains at 1.7%).
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Unlike last year, when personnel spending grew faster than the average increase in household spending, this year it is growing at a slower rate. Chapter 1 of the Generalitat's expenditure, which relates to staff salaries, increases by 7.8% (while average total expenditure increases by 9.6%). The number of budgeted employees increases by 2.6% to 290,196. This means that 7,309 more full-time employees are planned to be hired this year than last year. Most of these will go towards health and education.
Public sector investments in this budget amount to 3,064 million euros, 9.7% more than last year and more than double than in 2014, when public investments suffered adjustments due to the financial crisis. The biggest investment efforts in 2024 will be in rail infrastructure, healthcare and road infrastructure. Also noteworthy, due to the drought situation in Catalonia, are the investments in the water cycle (228 million euros), which, together with the programs and expenditure of the departments, result in a budget allocated to water and drought of 1,045 million euros. Of this, 327 million will go towards expanding and maintaining the regeneration and desalination plants, and 86 million will go towards improving irrigation to save water, among other things.
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