Toulouse Métropole: concern about the financing of major projects
What will be the impact of the war in Ukraine on the finances of Toulouse Métropole and its major projects such as the 3rd metro line? Without being able to assess it yet, elected officials are worried.
After the health crisis, will the war in Ukraine have an impact on the financing of major metropolitan projects, starting with the 3rd metro line? During the last assembly of elected representatives of the Metropolis, on March 24, the president of the socialist group, Karine Traval-Michelet, who participates in the executive within the framework of the governance pact, openly expressed her concern. “Rise in energy prices, raw materials, resumption of inflation, perhaps an increase in interest rates”… the elected official added the current or probable consequences. She added a possible tax reform, the abolition of the CVAE, an economic tax collected by the Metropolis, even a puncture “of 10 billion to the communities”, measures taken into account by the candidate Macron.
Shortage of materials?
The Métropole has planned more than 2 billion in investment over the mandate, that is to say by 2026. Its contribution to Tisséo, with that of corporate taxation, and before a massive loan, is one of the pillars the financing of the 3rd metro line, the launch of which has already been postponed to 2028 due to the Covid. The Métropole is also one of the contributors to the LGV. And it carries, with the Climate Plan, ecological transition measures. A subject on which Karine Traval-Michelet affirmed that it was necessary to “amplify the efforts”.
These projects, like public policies, the metropolitan majority does not intend to call into question. “The project will be more difficult to build, but that doesn’t mean we have to give it up,” a summary by Joseph Carles, spokesman for the Independents group.
As requested by Karine Traval-Michelet, there will be a financial seminar at the start of the school year, announces Sacha Briand, vice-president in charge of finance. For the time being, the elected official, like his colleagues from other political groups, does not quantify the financial impact of the consequences of the war. “We won’t have definitive elements but only trends”, advances Sacha Briand who affirms that the financing plan for the 3rd line is regularly updated.
Tisséo, and the companies of the huge construction site which will begin at the end of 2022, do they also think of being supplied by shortages of materials? “We are vigilant”, answers Jean-Michel Lattes, but, at this stage, “it is difficult to have certainties”, advances the president of Tisséo Collectivities. The site will only reach its peak from the end of 2023 to 2026 and the elected official wants to believe in a “cyclical and not structural” impact.