Tourism will hold the key to these budget negotiations within Barcelona City Hall. Comuns and ERC are putting pressure on the Collboni government to squeeze this sector in exchange for their votes. Votes which are necessary since the mayor continues to govern alone.
The debate now focuses on the tax ordinances, which will begin to be debated this Friday in the Economy and Finance Committee and for which conditions have already been set. For her part, the leader of the Comuns, Janet Sanz, stressed that she would take advantage of every opportunity where her vote was necessary to “correct Collboni’s elitist drift”.
To this end, they have three demands. The first is to increase the IBI paid by luxury hotels. Sanz proposes that any building with a cadastral value greater than 5.2 million euros goes from the IBI rate of 1% to 1.3%. In this way, they would pay twice as much as a citizen who owns an apartment, who pays 0.6%.
The Comuns calculates that this measure, which would affect 250 hotels and 224 properties (shopping centers, convention centers, etc.), would make it possible to raise an additional 10 million.
On the other hand, they also demand that Collboni doubles the entrance fee that tourists pay to enter Park Güell. It is a park of discord, which has become the flag of the Commons since it hosted a private fashion show for the Louis Vuitton brand as part of the Sailing America’s Cup.
“We cannot allow the commercialization of public spaces, much less those that are protected,” Sanz said at a press conference. The objective of this measure is to dissuade some of the visitors who come to the park, which can accommodate a maximum of 4.5 million people per year. “And among them, a very small percentage are neighbors,” he added.
Finally, the Municipalities demand a tightening of the regulations on terraces. According to Sanz, the current law – approved by Ada Colau in 2021 – “makes it cheaper to break the rule than to comply.” According to him, it is necessary to strengthen controls and sanctions. And, to do this, he proposes to modify the text in which, even if maximum amounts of fines are set, there is no minimum. “This means that the penalties are still very low.”
However, Sanz suggests a minimum of 750 for minor sanctions and 1,500 for serious sanctions. And that with an accumulation of two serious ones, we arrive at a very serious one which implies the withdrawal of the license. “It is necessary to send a message because it is a sector that can interfere a lot with the lives of neighbors,” Sanz emphasized.
No more taxes for spending the night in Barcelona
Just as the Comuns presented three demands to Collboni, the ERC presented only one. They demand to double the price of the tourist tax that each visitor pays for each night spent in Barcelona. The Republicans want this figure to increase from 4 to 8 euros.
Collboni’s PSC has been in favor of an increase in the rate and should, in principle, accept the Republicans’ idea without too many problems. But this request will not appear in the first proposal for tax ordinances that the Government will present at next week’s plenary session. The reason is that Barcelona already imposes the legal maximum and if this ceiling were to be increased, Parliament would have to extend the law that regulates it.
Thus, everything seems to indicate that the Republican vote for Collboni’s ordinances is guaranteed. But this still requires the yes of the Commons. Janet Sanz assured that the CPS was aware of their proposals, but that it had not yet received any. back.
Extended prescriptions and budgets for the minimum
Tax negotiations bogged down Collboni during his first year as mayor. Last year, the plenary session rejected his orders outright, and he was unable to negotiate ones that had the support of enough councilors. As a result, Barcelona is currently working on the extended 2023 orders.
On the other hand, budgets were also a crucifix. After long negotiations and last minute changes, Collboni only had the votes of the ERC, insufficient to move the accounts forward. It is for this reason that he had to resort to the motion of confidence, a letter that mayors must present to unblock vital and difficult negotiations.
The mayor outvoted her because no alternative candidate was offered. He thus revalidated his mandate and, in doing so, approved his accounts. Although it was an alternative that others like Colau or Trias had used before, Collboni was the first to use it in his first year.
So, as it is a card that can only be drawn twice per legislature, Collboni will try to equalize the votes of the Commons for the conversations this fall. The vote on tax ordinances will be a first contact before the negotiation of budgets.
But there is still time. The accounts will only begin to be discussed after the passing of the congresses which include the majority of parties in the municipal council (Junts in October and Comuns and ERC in November). These congresses are also important because once adopted, the ERC will probably organize a consultation with its activists to approve the government agreement to enter the Collboni Town Hall. A consultation which was already held last June and which had to be suspended due to excess capacity and which has not yet been convened.
However, it is not expected that Barcelona will be able to have budgets until the first quarter of 2025.
