Council of Mallorca headquarters in Palma.

The Council of Mallorca owes eleven million euros, | Archive

Andrew EdePalma06/09/2023 08:11
TW
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The Council of Mallorca owes town halls some eleven million euros, payments for the most part related to the plan for public works and services. Town halls receive this money annually, the amount being based on size of population.

The new finance councillor at the Council of Mallorca, Pilar Bonet, accepts that there are outstanding payments. She attributes this to a transfer of functions following the May election, to the incorporation of new technical personnel, and to August - public administration is on holiday. Most of the payments, she adds, will be made over the first fortnight of this month.

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Mallorca town halls facing a liquidity crisis

With town halls struggling with liquidity because of inflation and uncertainties over the use of budget surplus cash, delays in payments by the Council and by the Balearic government are the last thing they need.

Toni Salas, the mayor of Costitx and the president of the Felib federation of town halls, says: "We are becoming decapitalised. At this moment I have 700,000 euros outstanding. Liquidity is bad. We are investing a lot. They subsidise projects (with the tourist tax, Next Generation funds, for example), but it then takes time to get paid."

The government reckons that it only owes 478,000 for payments that correspond to the 2023 budget, but town halls don't agree. For instance, ten schools are currently being built, and these amount to three to four million euros. In the case of one town hall, Muro, it is waiting to be paid 660,000 euros for the building of a new municipal kindergarten that is financed with European funds that are managed by the government.