Rome – The 2023-2025 budget was approved by the Capitoline Assembly, which deals with an overall situation, compared to last year, of fewer resources of around 350 million euros, between lower revenues and higher costs related to the crisis energy and inflation. Even in this difficult context, the maneuver approved today provides for a reduction in the resources of current parts relating to municipal funds of only 24 million euros. The 2023-2025 maneuver passed with 27 votes in favour, 10 against and one abstention.
This result was possible, on the one hand, thanks to limited extraordinary revenues, including the amendment to the 2023 Budget Law which allows Rome Capital to only temporarily postpone the payment of half of the contribution for the Commissioner’s Debt Management. And then, thanks to the fundamental work of optimizing resources and the important reforms launched during the first year of administration, starting with the impressive effort to improve the efficiency and reorganization of the revenue sector, through interventions on the digitization of collection, in particular of the Tari, which led to the recovery of around 100 million euro.
In this context, as far as the capital account is concerned, the Budget envisages an investment plan for the three-year period of almost 6 billion euro. Of these, 3 billion refer to 2023 and include approximately 1.3 billion in investments for mobility infrastructures (including the purchase of vehicles and subway maintenance); almost 780 million euros for the same year are destined instead for investments in works and maintenance of roads, assets and school buildings. Furthermore, again for 2023, 54 million investments are planned for the waste cycle and 47 million for the environment.
Overall, the maneuver launched by the Assembly manages to guarantee essential services for citizens for 2023, already significantly increased in 2022, as in the case of the reduction in waiting lists. In particular, the strong focus on social inclusion and school is reaffirmed. Compared to the 2023 forecast approved last year, current expenditure for social and family policies will in fact increase by almost 105 million euros for 2023, while for education there will be an increase in current resources of over 50 million euros for the same year.
In the last two months, the Administration has worked intensely to identify new resources capable of further strengthening the structure of the budget approved in December: in fact, with the maxi-amendment, an additional 45 million euro is allocated for the current part 2023, over an additional 56 million euros for 2024 and an additional 55 million for 2025, with a strong focus on inclusion, school, and other key areas such as transport, infrastructure and culture. The finding of these greater resources is connected to the verification of the actual trend of the income for the subsidy and of the surtax Irpef.
Additional resources that go to finance numerous items of expenditure, starting from the 30 million euros more over 2024 and 2025 for the overhaul of the Metro C trains, and from the more than 40 million euros more over three years on the service contract Atac. Also significant are the 5 million euros already added this year for the overtime of the traffic police, as well as the over 3 million in three years for the rental of speed cameras. Also important is the continuous strengthening of economic commitments in favor of the Roman Estate, with an additional 2 million euros between 2024 and 2025 compared to the funding already secured for 2023.
Great attention, in the context of current expenditure, was also dedicated by the maxi-amendment to the suggestions and proposals of the Capitoline Assembly: from 6 million in three years to support family homes, to support for the planning of new energy communities, up to the significant strengthening of the Capitoline commitment aimed at funds for school canteens, the Oepac service and school transport (about 10.5 million euros more).
As regards investments, in the same maxi-amendment the 75 million euro for Erp maintenance stands out, the 60 million of Jubilee funds destined for sidewalks and roads under the jurisdiction of the municipalities, to which are added municipal funds for sidewalks (+3 million in 2023 ) and on architectural barriers (+6 million in this two-year period). Also important are the over 7 million for the construction of the parks overlooking the Tiber. Furthermore, there are investments in the Opera Theater (almost +2 million in 2023) and almost +3 million, in 2023 alone, for the Auditorium (plus another 4.5 million in 2024). And again the 16 million euros destined for water and sewage works for many suburbs and thousands of families who still lack them, the +5 million for 2023 on the new local market in Piazza San Giovanni di Dio and the almost +10 million in two years on the construction of the new luminous pedestrian crossings.
The action envisages a total of 13.7 billion with current expenses amounting to over 5 billion euros. In particular, an investment plan for the three-year period of over 6 billion euros is envisaged, of which 3 billion for 2023 alone. The Budget is mainly based on the three major strategic axes of administrative action: innovation, environmental sustainability and social inclusion with the reduction of distances and inequalities.
“I thank the entire Capitoline Assembly for the unified spirit which allowed us to approve the budget in time by the end of February. And I thank, of course, the Deputy Mayor of Scotland, all the Council, the Accounting and the offices for the extraordinary work done in a difficult context. We have avoided cuts to citizens, instead managing to confirm and relaunch the level of services provided with great teamwork, we have improved the budget for a greener, more accessible, cleaner and more inclusive city. There was a positive method of respect for opinions and the assumption of responsibility on the part of everyone, the majority and the opposition. This effort will now allow us to give a further boost to our programming capacity, as well as to make progress on strengthening the administrative machine and many services. We have written an important page, and the city emerges stronger from this test. Now, it is necessary to open a national table on adequate financing of Rome’s functions as a large metropolis and capital of the country.”, said the Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri.
“Thanks to extraordinary revenues – but only temporary – such as those which Rome benefits from under the National Budget Law and thanks to the important reforms launched during the first year of the mandate, starting with the impressive effort to improve efficiency and reorganize the sector of revenue, we are able to guarantee services to citizens for 2023, already increased in 2022. But the increasingly urgent issue of the serious structural lack of resources from which Rome suffers remains. In fact, the resources allocated to our city have never been adequate to its role as capital, nor to its demographic and geographical dimension. Rome lacks at least 150 million resources deriving from the implementation of fiscal federalism and at least 400 million from the national transport fund to put it on the same level as other Italian cities. The process of financing the functions of a capital must then be completed” declared the Deputy Mayor and Councilor for the Budget Silvia Scozzese.
“It is an important and strategic act for the development of the city with resources dedicated to schools, green areas, transport, new hires and particular attention to social issues and therefore to the support of families and businesses that suffer from rising bills, the expensive energy and inflation. There are funds for hiring 600 female educators and for the historic stabilization of many precarious workers. The nursery school fees have been further reduced and 70% of families today do not pay the fee. It’s a great result. We rewrote the Oepac regulation and finally gave more rights to operators, who didn’t even have a meal voucher. But above all we have simplified and strengthened the choice for the integration of all children”, say the councilors of the Democratic Party in the Campidoglio.
“There are funds for parks and historic villas and for the redevelopment of 700 kilometers of roads for the Jubilee, in the center and in the suburbs. Also in view of the big events, the Jubilee and Expo, we wanted to relaunch recruitment to get the city ready.
A work of overall revitalization of the city and support for social and civil rights, participation and constant confrontation with the city that has not begun now: the regulations on assets confiscated from the mafias and on unavailable municipal assets that restore space to associations and the third sector, the directive on residence for occupants who are in particular hardship conditions, the economic rescue and revitalization of public companies such as Farmacap and Roma Multiservizi to guarantee services and employment levels, the consultation for people with disabilities as proof of policies in compliance with the “Nothing about us without without us”, the honorary citizenship for Patrick Zaki, the rest and refreshment areas for the riders and the discussion path for a regularization of the contracts, the large investment in cultural policies for the relaunch of the suburbs and territories, economic and fiscal aid to cultural associations, cinemas and others theatres, the expansion of the places available in the nursery schools and the opening up to same-parent children, the launch of the co-planning to overcome the Roma camps, the reorganization of the policies to combat addiction, the financing of the removal of architectural barriers in the social housing, but also the integrated path of accessible culture and a Rome Film Festival spread across the territories, the public works plan for the Jubilee and control over the Pnrr’s participatory planning, the open days for the renewal of identity cards , the strengthening of the Capitoline and school staff with the scrolling of public competitions, the great Sustainable Mobility Plan and the modernization of the Capitoline libraries, the restructuring and expansion of services for the reception system for the homeless. A mere list, not exhaustive, of what has been done in these first months by the city council of Rome and by the council led by the mayor Roberto Gualtieri “they underline.
“A work of support for social and civil rights, of participation and constant dialogue with the city. A job made possible only thanks to a united, competent, listening and down-to-earth majority whose horizon is to shorten the distances between the haves and the have-nots, bridging widespread inequalities in and between territories and bringing administrators to citizens in supporting the requests of committees and associations that have found a welcoming and available home in the Campidoglio and in the Capitoline Commissions “, they add.
“We approved this budget responsibly, for the good of the city, its towns and its citizens. A team effort and for this we thank Mayor Gualtieri, the Scottish assessor and the offices for the challenging work of balancing the accounts. Thanks also to all the other political forces who constructively offered their contribution and their perspective in terms of discussion in the Chamber”, they conclude.
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