Local authorities and housing: the urgency of a deal with the State

Free tribune

While the Minister of Development has launched the idea of ​​a “modest contribution” of citizens to the financing of public services, postponed by the government, housing, supporting most of the local taxation, is the expiatory victim relations between the national executive power and the local authorities, estimates Henry Buzy-Cazaux, president of the Institute of Management of Real Estate Services.

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The debate was reopened by François Rebsamen, Minister of Spatial Planning and Decentralization, a few days ago. He evoked not the recreation of the housing tax, far from it … but the creation of a modest contribution of all the inhabitants of the municipalities of France to their finances. The maximum sum of 50 euros per year was released, for an average of 30 euros per household. Test ball? Real political project? The Prime Minister, François Bayrou, undoubtedly provided the answer: no new “neither secret nor discreet” tax is on the program, and he imposes himself to ban the “artichoke method”. So much the better, because the subject is better than the tax DIY to which the State is so far, and for a long time.

The last episode concerned the transfer duties for consideration, the FNotary Rais To speak simply -then it is the notaries who perceive them when reiterating a real estate purchase on behalf of the public power -. The departments, weakened by the drop in collection following the decrease in a third of transactions, having to face their social spending, found no other solution than to ask the legislator to increase these rights by 0.50%, already the highest in the world. And as the measure was likely to break the recovery, the government has imposed that this increase in the first-time buyers would be excluded. In short, all of this lacks consistency and readability.

Upheaval of large balances of local taxation

Another episode, much more serious, sends us back to the beginning of the first five -year term of President Macron: the abolition of the housing tax, which has become a totem of Macronie which therefore considers taboo any questioning, has turned the great balances of the local taxation. To compensate for the loss for the municipalities imperfectly, the executive gesticulated by transferring the property taxpreviously in the hands of the departments, and by committing to reroute towards the latter from VAT to due competition. Complicated at will and above all to the key the killing of the tax autonomy of the communities concerned.

François Bayrou is right to want an overall look and something as a logic and intelligence of local taxation and its articulation with national taxation, housing constituting the object most concerned by this reflection. For eight years, he paid the price for this short view and this political marketing of Emmanuel Macron: we did not resolvabilized households of 700 euros on average per year, we exposed them to all the tax and local tax increases. The property tax has exploded, to reach in certain municipalities an amount equal to the sum of the old housing tax and the old property tax. Acquire a property costs 500 euros more per tranche of 100,000 euros, or on average 1,000 euros for an average operation. Not to mention the more confidential taxes invented by communities, which pass under radars, such as the household waste removal tax -then that the frequency of passage continues to
Lower in number of municipalities in France, accompanied by the refusal of certain garbage in the name of selective sorting and environmental protection.

Housing, expiatory victim

In short, a dupe market. The worst is not there. We cannot deny that the missions weighing on our local authorities are constantly growing and that the State, over the years, loads the boat. It cannot be denied that subsidiarity is guaranteed more efficiency. Still, these local players need increasingly important resources. In addition, the prouds of the excessive lifestyle of communities are not wrong and before wanting more tax revenues it would be necessary to save money. On arrival in any case, the accommodation is the expiatory victim, not only by supporting the essentials of local taxation, but by making the cost of the drop in building permits. The link? The mayor of a municipality who considers that they cannot finance the services that new residents will legitimately claim, one crèche, one more class, a bus stop, a police branch, will prefer to abstain from welcoming them to his home. It is basically the major reason for reluctance to
deliver urban planning authorizations at the request of promoters. It is added to the prudence of candidates for their re -election, taking care not to disturb their population by sociological developments linked to entrants in the city. However, during the municipal mandate that ends, mayors were able to feel that the housing needs of their citizens already there were less and less satisfied and that they had to get out of Malthusianism and to abound the offer at all costs.

Since the arrival at the Élysée of the current President of the Republic, relations between national executive power and local communities have continued to deteriorate. Confidence, vital, has replaced the distrust of every moment. Resetting this dialogue is a crucial issue: it will condition the participation of local authorities in the effort to reduce the public deficit And it will avoid municipalities to sacrifice the accommodation on the altar of their tax fears.