Municipalities want resources along with powers

THE MAYOR OF IOANNINES, THOMAS BEGAS, ASKED FOR A MORE DYNAMIC ADVOCATION

The mayor of Ioannina, Thomas Begas, showed the way for a more dynamic claim of the statutory resources that the country’s municipalities are entitled to from the central state, with his appointment to the municipal council on Wednesday.

Mr. Begas, as a member of the Board of Directors of KEDE conveyed to the Chamber the latest developments as they were discussed at the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece last week, stressing that unanimous decisions – protests that ultimately remain in the drawers of ministers do not bring results.

“I believe that all municipal authorities, without exception, wish to implement policies producing results for their locality. We do not refuse to take on serious responsibilities and responsibilities, but the question is how and under what conditions.

The central state very easily transfers powers and responsibilities to self-government and to the citizen.

And of course he does not pass on the easy ones, but the difficult and dangerous ones.

Characteristic examples are the transfer of responsibility for the management of strays and of course the recent transfer of responsibility for fire protection.

And what is the method followed?

First of all the surprise and secondly the transfer of powers without human and financial resources and means”, Mr. Begas initially said to add:

“Society should know these things and we, as a self-government, must highlight them so that the real responsibilities attributed to us are attributed to us.”

He then pointed out that in the last Board of Directors of KEDE emphatically highlighted the fact that if the state paid self-government what it was legally entitled to based on its revenues, it would have to pay 6.5 billion euros for 2024.

Instead, only 1.8 billion euros will reach the coffers of the municipalities, which correspond to approximately 30% of the entitled statutory resources of the self-government.

At the same time, the mayor noted that the subsidy for energy costs was stopped even though it did not escalate that much and brought the example of SYDLI, where the passing of its budget is a Gordian link due to the high energy costs which cannot be covered by its revenues Association with the result that the budget is not balanced.

“Overall, it is a common finding that landfill fees, increased wage costs and energy costs are blowing up municipal operating costs.

Based on the above, our faction at the last meetings of the KEDE emphasized the need immediately and after the end of the European elections to request a meeting with the prime minister and the co-competent ministers in order to bring these major issues to their attention in detail and in the event that they are not understandably move on to more dynamic forms of protest such as demonstrations and symbolic closures of our town halls.

The practices of the unanimous decisions of the Board of Directors. of KEDE in relation to these issues and their transmission to the relevant ministries and then the non-response on their part have been exhausted.

Especially in our municipality, taking into account the painful transition to the next day, after the abolition of large legal entities and the need to integrate them into the Municipality Organization, but also the fact that we were forced to operate in full growth after the budget was passed at the end of March , the situation became even more suffocating, forcing us for the year 2024 to run behind the needs and developments”, concluded Mr. Begas.

Condolences for El. Kalogiannis

The Mayor opened the non-agenda discussion by expressing his condolences to the leader of the “Ioannina_2023” faction Tatianna Kalogianni for the loss of her father.

“The deceased was a member of parliament for Ioannina and left his mark on the political affairs of the place.

I express my deepest condolences to his relatives,” said Mr. Begas.

Supporter of the mayor

Finally, the mayor also referred to the election of the new supporter of the citizen and the business.

“The Citizen’s Supporter’s mission is to mediate the resolution of the problems faced by citizens and businesses directly affected by mismanagement of the services, legal entities and businesses of the Municipality of Ioannito.

It is an institution that I believe should operate in a modern European Municipality, in the sense of an independent authority.

After all, it was a political choice of the previous Municipal Authority of the Nea Ioannina Citizens’ Unity in the period 2014-2019 to launch the implementation of the institution, because we believe that it can make the citizen’s relationship with the Municipality more reliable”, said Mr. Begas, thanking the late supporter of the citizen Mr. Christos Panos who served the position in the best way from 2014-2024 and wishing a good term and a good job to Mr. Panagiotis Katsanos, stating that he is sure that he will honor the trust of the Municipal Council and will respond worthy of his duties.