The communities called on Tuesday June 9, through the Local Finance Committee (CFL) which represents them, to “change method” to develop the 2027 budget and to no longer multiply levies or reductions in compensation for eliminated taxes.
According to the CFL pre-report for 2025, operating expenses for all strata of communities increased very little last year (+1.4%), the lowest increase recorded since 2020. This concerns in particular intervention expenses such as aid to associations, but also personnel costs.
This trend is explained in particular by a much lower rise in inflation, or by the end of the effects induced by the revaluation of the index point of civil servants. However, certain items remain “very dynamic” such as accommodation expenses for child welfare.
“These public, objective, validated figures corroborate the analysis of local elected officials and contradict a certain number of speeches (…) No, local authorities are not seeing their operating expenses explode,” commented Jean-François Debat, PS mayor of Bourg-en-Bresse and new president of the CFL. He replaces the socialist André Laignel in this position to whom he paid tribute.
40 billion in local taxes removed
Operating revenues such as VAT are “less and less dynamic” (+2.2%), while local investment slows down (+1.7%) after four years of strong growth. Overall, the financing need remains significant, the difference between revenue and expenditure (before movements on the debt) being negative (–8.4 billion euros), which increases the debt by 4.4%.
“Since 2023, all categories of communities have been in need of financing,” notes the CFL, which recalls that this was not the case between 2015 and 2022, excluding the year 2020.
Communities continue to warn about the effects of the levies desired by successive governments to restore public finances, forcing them to draw on their savings and resort more to borrowing. “It is urgent to change the method to prepare the following budgets,” warned Jean-François Debat, also criticizing the 40 billion euros in local taxes removed.
Over the entire 2020-2025 mandate, marked by multiple crises, the operating expenses of the municipal block increased “at the same rate as during the previous mandate” excluding inflation, while investments increased significantly for the municipalities and their intermunicipalities, further notes the CFL.
