dSince the death of Gaston Defferre, in 1986, the local elected officials, whether from the majority or the opposition, were left orphaned by the only truly decentralizing minister in history, the one who, by the law of March 2, 1982, had attempted break with eight centuries of administrative centralization undertaken by Philippe Auguste (1165-1223) with the bailiffs and seneschals, ancestors of the current prefects.
Over the past twenty-five years, successive governments have dismantled much of local taxation, eliminating regional transfer taxes, departmental stickers, professional tax, housing tax on main residences, social security contributions for convert them into added value as a local tax, not to mention the division into two of the territorial bases of industrial companies.
With this wheel of texts, the departments and regions no longer have the slightest room for fiscal maneuver. As for municipalities, although they can still charge a tourist tax to visitors who spend one night in their territory, the stay of a resident who spends there 365 days a year becomes free.
This debate between central and local authorities has been heated since the summer, with Bercy questioning the responsibility of the communities in the announced drift of public accounts, which would go from a projected deficit of 4.4% of GDP to 6.1 % estimated in 2024. that is, a forecast deficit of more than 50 billion euros…
Different accounting rules
If the national financial accounts consolidate the budgetary results of three public administrations (central, social and local), they do not obey the same accounting rules, which is regrettable in a modern country. According to the 2025 finance bill, currently under discussion in Parliament, the State’s operating deficit amounts to €106 billion, meaning that two-thirds of its staff are paid through loans. Furthermore, the State does not make any imputation to depreciation. on their own fixed assets, as if their vehicles and computers had an infinite useful life…
On the other hand, communities, in addition to having to depreciate their movable assets like companies, can only resort to debt to finance investments and, furthermore, they cannot repay the capital of their debt by contracting new loans. If the State itself respected the budgetary rules it imposes on communities, it would have to add no less than 276 billion additional taxes to the 2025 finance bill or, to give an order of magnitude, pass the normal VAT rate of the 20% to 46%!
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