Council's 2018 spending centres on care services, environment and heritage sites

Foto presentacio pressupost 2018 premsaCiF president Jaume Ferrer and Bartomeu Escandell, the administration's deputy chair and tax office secretary, sat down today at 11.00am in the Sala d'Actes of the Formentera Council to shine a light on the administration's 2018 budget, which, at €26,860,000, marks a 12.78% jump compared to 2017.

Secretary Escandell cited a more robust endowment from the region, including funding from sources like the so-called “Sustainable Tourism Tax” and the central government in Madrid. Particularly noteworthy: this year, the bulk of the Council's investments will be self-funded. According to Escandell, it is the result of ten years during which the Council has fine-tuned its services for islanders and overseen its own infrastructural consolidation. The secretary held up the administration's current debt load (zero) as a sign of economic surefootedness and proof “the Council doesn't rely on external funding”.

Spending
The administration's biggest appropriation (€10,086,500) is for staff. Next year will see the rollout of a new jobs service, part of a measure approved at a recent plenary session. The increase, says Escandell, is linked to the Council's incorporation of personnel from the tourism advisory board (Patronat de Turisme).

The secretary explained that “spending has grown commensurate with new and upgraded services and the gradual consolidation of the administration's workforce”. Waste management and cleaning remains the largest expenditure, and real investment has also climbed, from €3,250,000 in 2017 to €4,500,000 in 2018.

Revenue
The administration projects direct taxes will generate €6,150,000 in cash in 2018, similar to the same figure in 2017. Escandell pointed to a “stabilized” flow of money from both standard and ordinary collections — two categories which in recent years have represented increasingly important sums of money, thanks, he said, to “collection from previously hidden sources”.