For the last municipal Council before the summer holidays, the elected representatives of Caen (Calvados) worked on the accounts of the City this Monday, June 27, 2022. Together, Mayor Joël Bruneau and his finance assistant Michel Le Lan reviewed the balance sheet, with “great fundamentals which remain healthy”. According to them, compared to those of other cities of the same size, “the investment capacity is significant”, and “the use of limited debt”.

New savings and inflation at the same time

But both agree not to promise bright tomorrows. “If the situation is healthy in 2022”, they repeat, “there are many uncertainties for the future”. Which ones?

• Already, Joël Bruneau points to a “savings effort requested by the State from communities of 10 billion euros”. Without having “much more information”;
• the mayor also mentions “short-term inflation”. Fueled by the boom in energy costs. According to him, “we are moving towards more constrained times for communities”. Michel Le Lan assures him, “Until now, we have maintained energy costs at 5 M € per year. We managed to prevent the bill from increasing. ” Comment? Thanks to “quite protective and reassuring contracts”. Problem, they are renewed and renegotiated in 2023. Like the one relating to “the 15,000 lighting points of the City”. Result, “the fixed costs will increase, it will be necessary to be all the more rigorous”.

Faced with these bleaker prospects, the City of Caen should have responded, capacities that other comparable communities do not have.

First, the use of debt. At the end of 2021, Caen’s debt stops at €89 million. It will even reach “€120 million in 2026”, concedes Michel Le Lan. For the finance assistant, “the ability to repay debt is as important as the level of indebtedness itself”. He is delighted: “With the gross savings that we have – namely €15.88m – we can repay our debt of €89m in 5.6 years, which is a very favorable ratio. “According to Joël Bruneau, Tours, for example, had to increase its gross savings by 10% “so as not to take more than 15 years to repay”.

Downside all the same, self-financing capacity fell slightly, with gross savings slipping from €18 million to less than €16 million in two years. With regard to working capital increased to €4.6 million, and a contract for €15 million in new loans, “with a rate of 0.5% over 15 years”.

Over €30m invested

The town hall also prides itself on controlling operating expenses, despite this “first year without housing tax”, it is true compensated by the State, and the recovery of the property tax from the Calvados Departmental Council. It drops by just under €1 million between 2020 and 2021 to stand at €121 million. With a very slight drop in personnel costs, just before the City has to increase the salaries of its civil servants. The forthcoming law on purchasing power could increase the index point by 3 to 4%.

In 2021, the City of Caen confirms it, it was able to spend more than €31 million on investments. On average, over the two mandates of Joël Bruneau, the City spends more than 37 M € per year for investment, “instead of 25 to 27 M € each year between 2008 and 2014”, according to Michel Le Lan. Investments mainly devoted to cultural and sports venues, such as the Saint-Jean-Eudes sports hall or the Théâtre des Cordes. See when purchasing new parking meters. “Our heritage is rich”, observes Joël Bruneau, “but it has generated a lot of maintenance costs”. From 2022 and “in the following years”, the mayor announces “several projects in schools”.

A logic of austerity, without arbitration

For the municipal opposition, Rudy L’Orphelin, leader of the Caen environmentalist and citizen group deplores it: “We must proceed to the examination of 7^e administrative account of Joêl Bruneau since his election in 2014. The budgetary philosophy has hardly changed. »

Namely, according to him:

Track operating savings wherever possible, particularly on human resources, to free up margins for investment or – initially – to finance the promised tax cut to snatch the mayor’s chair.

He stigmatizes for his part “a logic of austerity”, based on “slices of justification on the moderate recourse to borrowing, the compression of operating expenses and the stability of personnel expenses”. He puts it forward:

What do we say about these indicators of the real state of our equipment or our assets? Almost nothing or almost nothing. »

Unsurprisingly, the elected opposition member recommends instead to “invest in the ecological transition, it is better to live in terms of employment, quality of life or purchasing power”. And regrets that the municipal majority of Joël Bruneau does not even arbitrate “between the issues linked to the end of the world and those linked to the end of the month”. Rudy L’Orphelin fears “the return to a new course of budgetary austerity”. And challenges the mayor: “Do you intend to support this policy? We expect you to disclose your intentions and choices in complete transparency. »

“Means that others do not have”

In response, Joël Bruneau relies precisely on this “good management” to face the difficult years to come: “We are indeed worried about the outlook. Our room for maneuver will decrease. You should congratulate yourself that the City of Caen is entering this period with resources that other communities of the same size do not have. »

For him, his vision – “the one you have been accusing me of from the start” – remains “to have the city evaluated, while reducing its attractiveness, you have to be able to print this rate of progress”. Incidentally, he could not hold back this tackle to the opposition: “I understand that it bothers you, when, at the same time, we have lowered taxes, increased investment spending, and improved services to the Caennais. I don’t mind you making this apocalyptic description, but it’s not based on anything but speech. »

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