The budgetary session of the Departmental Council took place this Monday, February 15.
The session was devoted to the vote of the initial 2021 budget. This year is marked by a global context which weakens the economies and therefore the territorial policies. “The crisis is present, Anjou is no exception. Thus for example, Maine-et-Loire follows the national progression of the RSA which knows an increase of + 10% or more 2 million people, who live or rather survive from this minimum allowance. “ states at the beginning of his speech Christian Gillet, President of the Departmental Council.
In response to the crisis, the Council will vote the most important investment budget of the term of office with a total of 96M € on June 13 and 20. These investments will be used to finance the various projects established by the Council.
Main projects 2021
Continued modernization of colleges
The establishments concerned are, among others, the colleges Les Roches in Durtal, Pompidou in Champtoceaux, C. Claudel in Louroux Béconnais, P. Eluard in Gennes and Millet in Doué… More than 24M € will be devoted to this project and will allow the implementation implementation of the 2021 digital college plan, a program of plural educational and civic actions but also the development of actions around sports for college students and residents. “Education is the basis of all civilization and all progress” Christian Gillet announced today.
Road maintenance
Nearly € 30M will be devoted to the continuation of road maintenance but also to the new work program on departmental roads 960, 963, 347 and 752 for more secure lanes, adapted to traffic. This investment will also allow the maintenance of the Ingrandes and Denée bridges, considered as engineering structures. This money will also be invested in the departmental plan for daily bike links, a project to improve the cycling area for everyday journeys.
Support for municipalities
An investment support plan for municipalities for an initial amount of € 15 million will be released. If the finances of the Department allow it, this figure could be revised upwards.
An opposition that sends you waltzing
To this 2021 budget, the opposition ‘L’Anjou en action’ reacted on February 15, 2021 in a press release introduced by Grégory Blanc, departmental councilor of the canton of Angers 7 and leader of the left in the departmental council. Spinning the musical metaphor, the departmental opposition is ironic about this budget that it considers to be “a waltz in 3 times”.
“At the first beat of the waltz, we start, we look at each other, we let ourselves be taken. In this Budget, chapter after chapter, we finally see the emergence of proposals that we have been making for a long time, sometimes even before the start of this mandate. So we read, we turn the pages, we smile, we hope and we say to ourselves “finally!” “. These are the times of “philosophical” exchanges with college students that we already mentioned during the 2015 attacks, feeling the need for expression on complex subjects with young people who sometimes cannot find the words. Listening to each other, understanding each other, with this crisis we are going through, there is always this urgency to deploy these innovations. Likewise: the opening of social assistance for our seniors in Autonomous Residence, the increase in the budget for firefighters, the reduction in the President’s budget and the referral of debates to the committees so that the assistance is part of the budget. a more democratic framework,… in this budget, we also see – there again finally! – the deployment of these new mechanisms to strengthen dialogue in the families of children placed by court order, etc. We turn the pages. Yes, “it’s disturbing, it’s charming”, as in the first beat of the waltz. “ says Grégory Blanc. The leader of the opposition welcomes initially this budget with kindness My colleagues and I are reformists, many of whom started out in trade unionism. So when things go forward, even a few weeks before the elections, and regardless of the real intentions behind these decisions, we: we take! We are pragmatic. “
Then, in what the author of the press release calls the “2nd step”, “We count and we wonder” explains Grégory Blanc. “To be honest, the more we count, the more we wonder. And we say to ourselves that this session will for a great deal be oriented on these questions: how do you plan to finance all these new actions announced page after page? For some, it is clear. No problem. But for others… what is it really? “ The opposition takes several examples to illustrate, including child protection, denouncing cuts in the budget despite new preventive actions. Or even point the finger at the “very fine deliberation on integration” (Job Anjou, launch of kits, involvement in the Saumur project “territory zero unemployed”) “Here again, we find many ideas that we have put forward, … But when we count, even in revenue, there are new subsidies from the State and Europe, from BP 2020 to BP 2021, overall expenditure for integration actions fell by € 500,000… while the number of RSA beneficiaries exploded. Why ? “
Finally, the “3rd step” allows the opposition to denounce a lack of vision for the future “Because, if we have understood that this budget electorally blocks the angles and that it is a transitional budget, when we look beyond the horizon of these 1,000 pages, where are we going? How do we want to deploy the departmental public service in our territories, with whom and for what? What analysis do we make over the long term of the impacts of this health crisis? What about the impacts of the climate crisis? From the preparation of our department to aging? “.
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