Antonio Beteta, the Secretary of State of Public Administration, is presented a packet of local reforms today to Spain's Federation of Municipal and Provincial Governments (the acronym in Spanish is FEMP). Town councillors from Beteta's own party have issued various protests of the initial reform drafts, but the revisions will try to solidify a reform.
According to data from the Finance Ministry, the budgeted costs for providing basic municipal services costs 1,219.98 euros per citizen for towns of less than 5,000 people. This amount is as low as 445.44 euros per person for towns that have more than 100,000 citizens. These figures suggest that the number of municipalities needs to be reduced.
We have nearly the same number as Germany, but only half of their population. In total there are 8,116 municipalities and 84% of them have less than 5,000 citizens. The Finance Ministry's proposal forecasts savings of 7.13 billion euros even though it does not plan on trimming the total number of municipalities. Spending cuts will come from applying Spain's stability law to local governments in towns of more than 20,000 residents.
As for the rest of the money, town councils will take on the costs of services when they rise above the budgeted amounts. When that happens, the relevant town council will not take on responsibility for five years. The danger of this system is that it will fatten town councils and create duplicate functions. If the Finance Ministry wants the reforms to have a positive effect, then it should mitigate this risk and keep an attempt at saving money from causing the opposite result: beefy town governments that might raise more votes, but cost too much to run.
