Councils breed favoritism and wasteful spending

Local government reforms present a unique chance to root out provincial councils, but the national government does not seem ready to approve the measure. Their hesitation would be a serious mistake. The councils need to go away or else become symbolic, consultative bodies.

Does it make sense to keep bodies of government that were created nearly 200 years ago when they are just a spoils system for the political parties and a placement agency for the well-connected? Here is a telling figure: the councils spent between 32% and 40% of their annual budgets (5.963 million euros in 2011) on staffing. This is an excessive level of payroll spending thanks to cushy salaries that exceed what the Prime Minister and national ministers earn. At least that is the case for the president of Barcelona?s council, who earns 128,521 euros a year. In addition to being a refuge for nepotism and favoritism, these institutions are far from transparent and useless because the roles they perform exist in other administrations. So why has the Peoples? Party kept the councils?

The obsolete councils have survived because they serve the interest the political class, the same class that has delayed making reforms that would clean up Spain?s inefficient government and do away with the councils. Rajoy cannot afford to lose this chance to eradicate this area of wasteful spending and administrative inefficiency. The Spanish people are too angry to let party pressures prevent an overhaul of the political and economic system.