Torrevieja Budget Corrections and Modifications Approved Amid Controversy

In another extraordinary and urgent plenary session, the modification of credits worth 15.2 million euro was finally approved by Torrevieja government, after the correction of a material error in the sum of the items to be incorporated.

Specifically, the Councillor for Economy and Finance has reported that these almost 5 million euros will serve, firstly, to reinforce the staff of the Department of Social Welfare (4 social workers, 2 social educators, 2 psychologists, 1 equality promoter and 1 legal advisor). For the Department of Animal Protection, 1 veterinarian will be hired, and for Economic Development, 1 budget management body.

In addition to the financial allocation for the reclassification of the 50 administrative assistants to administrative staff, in compliance with the commitment made to the Staff Committee. In total, 1,058,924 euro. Likewise, 350,000 euro will be invested for the future IES nº6, and 3,500,000 euro for the works in the port of Torrevieja.

The modification of credits number 2/2024 to the Budget of the Torrevieja City Council, which amounts to 15.2 million euro, has also been definitively approved, with the votes in favour of the Municipal Group of the Popular Party and VOX and the votes against of the PSOE and Sueña Torrevieja.

Correction of material error in the sum of the items to be incorporated

It should be noted that at this point of the Agenda a material error was detected in the sum of the items that were to be incorporated, so it was left on the table and was taken to urgent approval on this same day; first, to avoid an additional cost to the municipal coffers, since it was the correction of a piece of data, and second, because this modification involved items of an urgent nature such as:

The provision of the essential basic services section of the Social Services Program for individualised financial aid and for foster care that are exhausted, and that require urgent provision to meet the large number of pending applications, as well as to continue with the works of the municipal animal shelter and, finally, to comply with judgment 172/2023 on the ordinary procedure.

Following the resumption of the plenary session, the Councillor for Economy and Finance, Domingo Paredes, has defended the errors and has announced that with this modification of credits, budget items are incorporated, among others, for:

-Electricity supply, which goes from 3,210,818 euro to 5,047,731 euro, thus increasing the budget by 1,836,912 euro.

-Lifeguard huts, with their budget increasing from 315,000 euro to 1,021,955 euro, which represents an increase of 706,955 euro.

– Animal shelter, which goes from 1,317,661 euro to 1,483,761 euro, increasing by 166,100 euro.

– Aid, creation, innovation and business development programmes, increasing from 160,256 euro to 500,000 euro, which represents a budget increase of 339,743 euro.

-Individualized financial aid and foster care program, goes from 141,297 euro to 341,297 euro, increasing the allocation by 200,000 euro.

-Agreement with the University of Alicante, which goes from 150,000 euro to 180,000 euro, increasing by 30,000 euro.

-General expenses in Social Services, which go from 10,000 to 76,805 euro, which represents an increase of 50,000 euro.

Furthermore, among the items created and constituting extraordinary credits, the following stand out:

Subsidy to productive sectors (200,000 euro), investments in buildings (778,003 euro), extraordinary repair of buildings and other constructions (1,055,000 euro), new investment in infrastructure and assets (960,000 euro), investments in land (5,000,000 euro), machinery, installations and tools (400,000 euro) or subsidy to families and non-profit institutions (100,000 euro).

Finally, the Councillor for Economy and Finance stated “surprise” of the change in the vote of the Socialist Municipal Group in the Plenary Session, with the budget item having the same origin of treasury surpluses and the budget modification having the same social and investment character.

Therefore, the Socialist Party of Torrevieja responded to the manifestations of the PP that claims to have been “surprised” with the meaning of its vote against the modification of credits in the Extraordinary Plenary Session.

They state that two credit modifications were brought to the plenary session: the second and the third since the budgets were approved at the beginning of the year. The socialists voted in favour of the third in the plenary session held at 8 in the morning and voted against the second, which was debated in a subsequent plenary session held at 1:00 p.m. due to an error in a summary that forced another plenary session to be called. The PP claimed to “not understand” the change in criteria.

Councillor David Villanueva explained in the plenary session itself that they voted in favour of the third modification using the “responsible vote” as they were necessary items and that they had been demanding from the municipal group itself, such as an increase in personnel for social services, items for educational centres or to complete the port work, a commitment by President Ximo Puig and which will constitute a key work for Torrevieja.

Likewise, the spokesperson for the municipal group, Bárbara Soler, has explained the reasons for the vote against the second modification in a video broadcast on her social networks in which she assures that in said modification “the PP has included an increase of 600,000 euro for the payment of interest that has been generated by not complying with payments that were pending.” In relation to the enormous increase in the amount for the payment of interest, Soler has described as “curious” that the PP decides to call the second plenary session on the same day “to save citizens from having to pay another plenary session.” In her opinion, it is totally contradictory to the fact that they try to justify the urgency of the plenary session by alleging as justification that it is the third payment request that he has received from a court for the payment of interest and that therefore he must comply without delay. “The people of Torrevieja would have paid much less if they had paid the first request because the interest continues to multiply until it is paid, which demonstrates once again the inaction and lack of foresight and management of the government team” she adds. “If they want to save citizens the payment of extraordinary plenary sessions, they should propose that they not be paid and the PSOE will support them.”

The socialist has also highlighted the 5,000,000 euro in investments to acquire land for sports and social infrastructure – “which ones? We don’t know,” says the spokesperson, “as well as the almost 800,000 euro in investments to acquire real estate due, according to the PP, to the increase in the services they must provide to citizens. “Do citizens know how many empty properties the City Council has? Do you know that we pay brutal rents to locate municipal offices in properties that are not ours?”, criticized the spokesperson. “If this investment were to stop paying rent, at least we would end that expense, but no, it is to provide new services. Which is it? It is not known. Why aren’t empty properties used? It is not known. Where are these properties that are going to be acquired located? Who are you going to buy them from? We do not know”.

For the socialists, it is essential that the inventory of municipally owned property be updated to optimise their occupation and that the properties be dedicated to municipal offices without the need to acquire new ones. As an example, “the old Town Hall building that remains unoccupied and whose lack of maintenance will cause it to be lost like almost all of Torrevieja’s heritage at the hands of the PP.”

According to the socialists, to give a “facelift” to the presentation of the credit modification, the PP included an item for the ADIEM foundation, which does much-needed work in terms of social integration of people with mental health problems, another item is the Unión Musical Torrevejense and social emergency aid. “That is, the PP takes it in a pack.” Soler affirms that “in this way, if we vote against, what they are trying to convey is that we are against associations and NGOs when, in reality, these items are much smaller and what we cannot approve is the enormous unjustified spending on investments. and interests that they try to mask behind good intentions and that is proof of their lack of management and inaction.”

The spokesperson stated that the PSOE would vote in favour if it were a modification of credits for exclusive social purposes and as long as the budgetary stability of the City Council was not in danger “but they mix legitimate causes with indefensible causes.”

However, as Soler has expressed, the PSOE vote does not condition the vote, since the modification went ahead with the absolute majority of the PP. “If it were up to us, these entities would receive the money they need for the stated purposes but not necessarily in charge of the remainder.”

The socialists agree that there is no contradiction in their vote, but rather a malicious interpretation of the PP.