The Spanish national government has cited figures to back up its request that regional governments adhere to stricter budget standards, basically because Central Administration has made a big effort to ensure that, despite widespread cutbacks, that Peripheral Administrations receive more breathing room than they did in 2011.
This leeway will be outlined in Spain's 2012 national budget document, in which the Secretary General of Local and Regional Government, Enrique Ossorio Crespo, indicates that ongoing subsidies and transfers, financing systems and payment funds for regional governments and town councils are scheduled to grow by 8.9% this year, going from 39.5 billion in 2011 to 43.05 billion this year.
In other words, budgeted funds will increase by 3.53 billion. The increase will collect more funds if we take into account the 16.9% boost in ministerial spending that the national government arranged for the 2012 budget.
"Regional governments will receive 9.7% more in resources to pay for public services such as healthcare, education and social services," indicates the text of the law. As for local governments, the increase is 7.6% year-to-year, but the exact amount has not been noted.
The national government is proud that it has managed to prevent declining regional tax revenues from having an impact on their bottom line. According to some estimations, this bottom line has dropped between 4% and 5%.
