The governor of Castilla-La Mancha, María Dolores de Cospedal, wants to set a strong example by proposing a 22% budget cut for the 2012 fiscal year. The budget would drop from 8,618 to 6,000 million euros. Her regional government hopes to cut a cool 1.7 billion euros in spending and collect just 97 million euros in tax revenues for the year. Cospedal is focusing her efforts where they are needed most. She will cut offices such as the Brussels delegation, the Economic and Social Council of Spain (acronym CES in Spanish) or the ombudsman, management positions, secretaries, 75% of the adviser force, drivers, institutional acts, and subsidies for unions, employee organizations, foundations, companies and programs for thermal energy and tourism.
She will halt investment in infrastructure and public works. She will sell vehicles, furniture and stock shares. She will close nearly all public limited companies, reduce the number of trade unions and funds allocated to regional government television (it will soon be privatized). She will control production surpluses, demand more hours in the classroom from professors and teachers and lower the regional government tax band. The goal is to take the deficit from 4.9% to 1.3% of the GDP without increasing taxes.
With nearly 80% of the changes destined for basic services, mostly Education and Wellness, the effort to reconfigure the way this government operates will be significant. For a Partido Popular (PP) that had faltered so much and acted like some sort of demagogue considering the measures it had to take, Cospedal is clearing up any doubts about her intentions.
