Dijon. Explosion of energy costs: the Burgundy region
They had been feared for many months, and even announced as early as last summer. But this time, the consequences for the Burgundy – Franche-Comté Region of skyrocketing energy costs are encrypted. And vertiginous… And there is no doubt that they will fuel the improved budgetary orientation debate, which will take place this Wednesday – once will not hurt – in Chalon-sur-Saône, in Saône-et-Loire, within the framework of the decentralized plenary sessions once a year.
It is therefore by juggling with the millions of euros evaporated this year that the Vice-President for Finance and the Economy, Nicolas Soret, presented the “painful”, during a press conference held this Wednesday in Dijon. , alongside President Marie-Guite Dufay.
€92m missing
Take an additional cost of €58 million just for the operation of the TER within the framework of the operating agreement with the SNCF. Add a €10 million increase in heating and foodstuffs for high schools. Then €10 million increase in the road transport bill. And another €25 million gone, with the repayment of the debt, following the three successive corrections of key rates by the European Central Bank. And finally €6 million missing, after the increase in the index point for civil servants by the government…
“You get €109 million in increased expenses directly linked to inflation,” summarizes Nicolas Soret. “At the same time, revenue, largely generated by VAT, has also deteriorated due to inflation. But only €17 million”. Result: a sum of 92 M€ is missing, at a time when, at the beginning of the year, the local authority integrated its budget, in particular by deciding on the height of its investments.
“Precautionary measures”
“This considerable increase in expenses represents half of our savings and in fact, of our investment capacities”, adds Marie-Guite Dufay. “We need to take precautionary measures now, while we wait to emerge from the fog.” The measures which will materialize as soon as the budget is voted at the end of January: there will be no new investments which will be included in it, “except those relating to work already started”, specifies the president. “We are not going to dismantle the cranes on our construction sites”, she says, recalling that around €600 million in investments, decided in past years, will still be assumed.
On the most designated position – that of the TER – Marie-Guite Dufay says, here again, “in the dark” on the effects, for the Region, of the measures taken by the government, intended to cushion the energy shock at the SNCF . “Will they reduce our charges for the TER? For now, we don’t know.” But the elected official knows, on the other hand, that regional trains weigh heavily financially in BFC, “more than elsewhere, because of the density of the network”. So, she says, “it will probably be necessary to enter into negotiations with the SNCF to reduce the cost which is ours”.
Opening to competition postponed
As for the TER network competition project, who had caused a stir, including within the regional majority , he too bears the brunt of the budgetary pangs of the community. Putting forward rather obscure “technical problems” in the setting up of a maintenance workshop and the delivery of new equipment, Mme Dufay thus announces the report of one year of the opening to private operators. “The Rail 2026 plan becomes Rail 2027”, she concludes.
Finally, still due to the energy surge, the Region announces that it will increase its cost-saving initiatives. By further encouraging telework, and by closing and not heating buildings that are too little occupied, when a large number of employees work at home, are on RTT or on vacation, for example. In Besançon, this decision will concern the La Fayette building from January.