Local authorities struggling with rising energy and food prices will be able to apply next week for a down payment on the state aid planned to compensate
the increase in their spending, Gabriel Attal said Wednesday.
“Local authorities will be able to apply for an advance payment next week and it will be paid to them between the end of November and the beginning of December,” the Minister of State for Public Accounts told senators during a government question session.
“We are talking about covering up to 70% of the increase in energy or food prices for local authorities. And up to 50% of the increase in the wage bill linked to the impact of the index point” of civil servants, he recalled, referring to the “safety net” of 430 million euros intended for the communal block voted this summer.
The payment of this aid must be subject to two criteria: the financial situation of the communities on January 1, 2022, and a 25% decrease in their gross savings between 2021 and 2022.
The minister announced this measure at a time when communities are very concerned about the rise in energy prices, with several senators and deputies from all sides of the House having questioned the executive on this subject in recent days.
“I make a commitment to you, no community or company will be left in a dead end,” assured, for her part, the Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, also before the Senate.
“I am thinking in particular of the most exposed communities, such as those with seasonal activities or those that manage large facilities,” she said, adding that the government will “soon present proposals.
For its part, the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) has called for “immediate measures”. “The excessive costs of energy in the new contracts proposed to communities are no longer acceptable or tenable,” she lamented in a statement, calling on the government “to act.
According to Gabriel Attal, the regulated electricity tariff currently applies “to 30,000 of the 36,000 communes”, which should therefore benefit from the 15% cap on the increase in the price of electricity in 2023.
The senator Céline Brulin (PCF), who questioned him, argued that the regulated rate did not apply to all communities, especially for gas.
The minister finally recalled on Wednesday that the draft finance law for 2023 provided for “an increase in the DGF (overall operating allowance allocated by the State to local authorities, editor’s note) of 210 million euros so that 70% of municipalities will see their DGF increase the year
next”.
He also said that the government is working “on new schemes that could build on the safety net to support communities in these energy price challenges.”
The presentation of the budget bill last week raised concerns among some local governments and led to strong criticism, particularly from the Local Finance Committee, of the government’s control of local government operating expenses and the elimination over two years of the contribution on the value added of businesses (CVAE), a production tax collected by the departments and municipalities.
