Response from the Ministry in charge of Local Authorities: The Government is aware of the consequences for municipalities of the effects of inflation on the operating expenses (electricity, gas, heating, etc.) of some of their public facilities (swimming pools, canteens, etc.) and of the revaluation of the point index resulting from the implementation of the decree of July 7, 2022.
This is why thearticle 14 of the amending finance law of 16 August 2022 establishes a budgetary support mechanism to support municipalities and their groups. Thus, municipalities that meet the following three criteria will be eligible for this support mechanism:
- if they had a gross savings rate (gross savings / actual operating revenue) of less than 22% in 2021;
- if their financial potential is less than twice the average for municipalities in their demographic stratum;
- if they lose at least 25% of their gross savings in 2022, mainly due to these increases in spending.
For eligible municipalities and public establishments for inter-municipal cooperation (EPCI), the State will pay them compensation equal to the sum of the following two terms:
- 70% of the increase in expenditure observed in 2022 for the purchase of energy, electricity, district heating and food products;
- 50% of the increase in expenditure observed in 2022 due to the revaluation of the index point.
State budget support is estimated at €430 million, but will depend on the actual change in the gross savings of municipalities and their associations in 2022. decree of October 13, 2022 clarifies how the endowment works. This will be automatically allocated to the municipalities in 2023. They will be able to request a deposit of 50% of its amount before November 15 at the end of 2022, for payment in December.
In addition to this budgetary support, all the municipalities benefit from the fixed revaluation of the tax bases, indexed to inflation.
In 2022, this fixed revaluation of the bases will be 3.4%, i.e. the highest rate for more than 30 years. This flat-rate increase alone should make it possible to increase the local taxation of municipalities and their groupings by more than 1.2 billion euros in 2022. In addition, the other categories of local authorities are also subject to specific support.
L’section 12 of the amending finance law provides support of €120 million for the departments to help them cope with the 4% revaluation of the active solidarity income (RSA) and thesection 13 an envelope of €18 million for the regions to compensate in 2022 for the increase in expenditure linked to the revaluation on July 1 of the remuneration paid to vocational training trainees.