The mayor of Porto accused the Minister of Territorial Cohesion on Tuesday of having “undervalued the role of the municipalities” in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, considering it “very offensive” that Ana Abrunhosa supposedly did so.
On the sidelines of a meeting of the Metropolitan Area of Porto to prepare the meeting on the 21st between that entity and the Minister of Territorial Cohesion, Rui Moreira also criticized the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities for not having reacted to those statements by Ana Abrunhosa, accusing the body chaired by the socialist Luísa Salgueiro of “submission”.
“I am especially interested in talking to the minister because you minister the other day in an interview (…) in one of the many interviews you have given, devalued the role of the municipalities in what was the commitment of the municipalities to help the Government and the populations to solve the problems of Covid-19“said the mayor.
According to Rui Moreira, “the minister says that there are still many municipalities that have masks, that they have done things that were not necessary, they devalued the role of the municipalities.”
“I think this is very offensive to the municipalities. (…). That the minister devalues what the mayors did, that the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities does not say a word about it, this permanent submission is something that I… I will ask the minister if she thinks I did wrong,” Rui said. Moreira.
The mayor of Porto stressed that “many [municípios] done unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the central state“, considering it “almost insulting” that the municipalities are “treated like this by a member of the Government”.
Regarding decentralization, the mayor of Porto once again referred to the lack of budgetary neutrality that was expected, warning of the “perfect storm” that could lead to increased costs for municipalities.
“When all this was announced there was a fundamental word, neutrality. Budget neutrality, that is, for each charge of 10 euros that is transferred to the municipality, that the municipality did not choose to have but that the State transferred to us, the State gives us 10 euros (…) but there is no neutrality in anything “, pointed.
Rui Moreira said that “if this is very complicated for a municipality like Porto that has no debt and has a budget dimension and a large budget perimeter, for some inland municipalities this is absolutely terrible“.
“If (…) our current expense, the main one, is human resources, I hope, we all hope, that with inflation around 10%, it is very likely that there will be a salary increase that offsets inflation, which we have not mastered. , but the resources we have to pay for that salary increase will not increase because it is not foreseeable that the taxes collected by the municipalities will increase (…), if you add all that, here we have the perfect storm, “he warned.
Source: Observadora
