Faced with budget cuts, local authorities are preparing for painful choices

Gervais Egault is particularly uplifted. The president of Lannion-Trégor Community (LTC), which brings together 57 municipalities in the west of Côtes-d’Armor, believes that he will lose “3.2 million euros in revenue in 2025”. This amount is due to savings of 5 billion euros (including 2 billion for the 450 largest communities) requested by the government in its 2025 draft budget, as well as the reductions in certain allocations previously announced.

If certain essential expenses, such as waste management, are protectedthe elected officials of Trégorrois have already decided to “suspend ongoing recruitment and hiring”explains Gervais Egault. But the drop in revenue provided for by the bill now being examined in the Senate is especially felt on future investments.

The discontent is all the stronger because, unlike the State, local authorities cannot adopt a deficit budget, according to the general code of local authorities. However, once operating expenses and essential missions are financed, there is little room left for local elected officials to find funds. “It’s simple, with these cuts, our self-financing capacity falls”summarizes Gervais Egault. The one who is also mayor of Louannec counts “spread out projects over time and limit them to what is strictly necessary”. He thus wants to maintain the transformation of industrial wastelands into campuses, but the rehabilitation of the Magic Square of Lannion, a national circus stage, risks being called into question. “All these investments that we are not making are local jobs that will be affected”laments the Breton.

Like him, officials of local authorities (regions, departments, towns and cities) are worried about the consequences of the budget cuts requested by the government. They even reevaluated them at 10 or 11 billion, counting the State’s withdrawals from revenues, but also the drop in endowments, like thee non-payment of part of the VAT compensation fund or the reduction in the Green Fund, as explained by a press release of the Association of Mayors of France.

In the north-west of France, the president of the Normandy region, Hervé Morin, is preparing to lower the amount of his subsidies “from 5% to 10%, where possible”. The centrist elected official reports an effort of 700 million euros to find, for a budget of “2.3 billion euros, including 1.7 billion in untouchable expenses, such as high schools and transport”. Where to get this money? “We have reduced our participation in territorial contracts by 15%, which notably finance new gymnasiums and swimming pools. We have also decided not to contribute to new road programs”he explains.

Throughout France, regions and departments track expenses that fall outside their legal obligations. They must carry out numerous mandatory missions: payment of the RSA, management of children in care, nursing homes for the departmental level, high schools and transport for the regional level, etc. “Our budgets are very constrained, 70% of our spending is on social missions that we don’t really manage. I can’t say: ‘I’m stopping taking in foster children'”underlines Frédéric Bierry, president of the European community of Alsace. The elected official believes that he will lose “300 million budgetary capacity for a budget of around two billion per year”. The hunt for savings must be done “on every policy”believes the elected representative of Les Républicains.

“We will have to ask ourselves what we are cutting: for example, I am going to propose stopping the subsidy from the Racing Club de Strasbourg. This represents 100,000 euros, but it is only a drop in the bucket.”

Frédéric Bierry, president of the European community of Alsace

at franceinfo

The department of Ille-et-Vilaine is facing a similar situation. “Unfortunately, most of the efforts can only be found on skills that are not mandatory, even if they are essential“, explains its president Jean-Luc Chenut. These are therefore “sport, culture, youth, health, action in terms of biodiversity and for the associative world which will be affected”explains the socialist. The chosen one, who explains having to save “50 million euros in 2025”, also worried about cuts “in the department’s aid paid to municipalities and intermunicipalities”.

Large projects, such as the thermal renovation of a building, the rehabilitation of a road or the opening of a performance hall, are frequently financed by several layers, ranging from the municipality to the State, or even the European Union. With the disengagement of one of the actors, the entire project risks being called into question. Will the cycling ambitions of the Breton department be able to continue, with the abandonment of the bicycle plan by the State and the decline in resources of towns and municipalities? Not necessarily, “but we are going to have to spread out projects that were in the pipeline over a year or two years”replies Jean-Luc Chenut.

A risk that Virginie Carolo-Lutrot, president of Caux Seine Agglo and mayor of Port-Jérôme-sur-Seine (Seine-Maritime), has it in mind. “I measure things by thinking about the cost of inaction”she explains when she talks about the choices to make. The elected official, for example, postponed the renovation of her town hall.

“Ultimately, it costs me less not to renovate than not to bring in doctors or invest in jobs.”

Virginie Carolo-Lutrot, president of Caux Seine Agglo

at franceinfo

In the South-West, Jean-René Etchegaray, mayor of Bayonne and president of the Basque Country community, is already thinking about the consequences. “The business world risks suffering. In France, 70% of public procurement comes from local authorities”he recalls. A note of the Jean-Jaurès Foundation published on November 19 also forecasts a drop of 12 billion euros in investment by local authorities in 2025, citing “a significant recessive economic impact”.

“I am also concerned, at the municipal level, about our ability to repay loans for projects currently being finalized”breathes Jean-René Etchegaray, while the mandates of elected officials will end in 2026. To prepare minds, the centrist has already started to do “the turn of the general assemblies of associations to warn that subsidies will be reduced”.

“The State is withdrawing from a certain number of the actors that we support, they would like the Region to come and compensate, but we will not be able to do that.”says Sandrine Derville, socialist vice-president in charge of finances for New Aquitaine. The regional executive calculated that it would have to save “108 million euros” next year.

Here again, certain missions are untouchable, such as “rail, since we are linked to a contract with the SNCF over several years”. “Our priority remains to preserve the economy and jobs, while we know that social plans will come in the coming months, but also the agricultural and ecological transition”adds Sandrine Derville. The savings will come more from the abandonment of “support for major industrial projects” And of “the continuation of the moratorium on aid to large groups”. If she promises to do everything to preserve public servicesshe fears that “communities are forced, unfairly, to degrade them”. What “generate a feeling of discontent and abandonment”, believes the vice-president.

“The risk is to increase social distress”agrees Gervais Egault. Régis Banquet, president of Carcassonne Agglo, fears that this will strengthen “distrust towards institutions and promotes electoral behavior harmful to the country”or, in the eyes of the elected socialist, the extremes. Jean-Luc Chenut identifies another danger: seeing the French “consent less and less to tax”.

This discontent has already pushed the government to react. The Prime Minister thus unveiled five mitigation measures aimed at departments on November 15of which the reduction of the contribution to the reserve fund and the increase by 0.5 point for three years of the ceiling of transfer taxes for valuable consideration, levied on real estate transactions. Michel Barnier also tried to reassure the mayors a few days later, affirming that “municipalities and communities” were not responsible for the deficit. The avenues put forward by the head of the executive must be validated by the senators, who examine the draft budget until December 12, before probably a joint committee to find a compromise between the two chambers, and a return to National Assembly which promises to be explosive.