The mayors of the Algarve consider that the Law of Commitments “strangles municipalities” and disagrees with its application, “especially in a scenario of crisis, as this only further accentuates the difficulties in which the Algarve finds itself”.
This position of the Algarve mayors was taken this Monday, July 2, at the meeting of the executive board of Amal (Comunidade Intermunicipal do Algarve), which took place in Faro.
Amal, in a statement, even says that "this law transforms the activity of municipalities into an authentic agony for mayors", who even already feel "great difficulties in meeting the basic needs of the resident population, as is the case, among others, meals and school transport'.
But it's not just residents who are affected. Amal guarantees that «the approximately one million tourists who come to the Algarve during this bathing season will be able to feel the effects of this law, which affects various activities with a direct impact on the image of the main tourist region in the country».
Cleaning and collection of urban waste, cleaning beaches, and protection and relief are areas that, according to the mayors, will be affected this summer.
«The Law of Commitments (Law 8/2012, of 21 February), combined with the State budget for 2012, obliges Municipalities to reduce their debt by 10% during the year and to pay the expenses incurred within the maximum period 90 days», stress the mayors of the Algarve.
Amal emphasizes that “this law further strangles the already weakened financial situation of the Algarve's Municipalities, whose revenues have dropped abruptly, as is the case with the IMT (Municipal Tax on Real Estate Transactions), in which the municipalities lost , in the last four years, around 300 million euros'.
Despite the government having announced a Program to Support the Local Economy (PAEL), the Intermunicipal Community in the Algarve recalls that it "covers only two-thirds of the municipalities' debt" and that the adhesion to the PAEL "imposes even more restrictive rules on municipal activity » and «penalizing» for the populations.
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