The Cabildo of Lanzarote has definitively approved the budgets for the year 2023 this Monday. In this way, the Island Institution becomes the first Public Administration of Lanzarote to approve the accounts corresponding to this year.
The president of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo, and the island's vice president, Marcos Bergaz, announced in the Plenary held this Monday the details of a budget that “amounts to 170 million euros in round figures, which represents an increase of 21 million compared to the 2021 Budget, extended during the 2022 financial year”.
The president expressed her satisfaction with the approval of her fourth budget of the term, highlighting that “it is our responsibility that the next government that I hope to lead has approved accounts after the May elections”.
“This is everyone's budget, not that of this Government group, since the May elections are approaching and we wanted to leave the work done and a legacy for the next Executive that allows it to have things easier than we had at the beginning of the mandate”, Dolores Corujo acknowledged.
Corujo also pointed out that “the proposals of the groups in the opposition have been taken into account, despite the fact that some of these entail difficulties that go beyond the powers of the Cabildo”, and highlighted “the provision of public land owned by the island for the Government of the Canary Islands, with the aim of creating social housing on the Island, as an example of actions in the field of housing, these being one of the main demands of the population and the opposition”.
Finally, the president thanked the great work of the Minister of Finance, Rosa Callero, in preparing the accounts, as well as the contribution of Marcos Bergaz in presenting them.
For his part, Bergaz expressed his pride in “defending the approval of a fundamental instrument for any government and institution: its General Budgets”. He also remarked that “three of the budgets approved in the mandate have been conditioned by circumstances that none of those present here could have foreseen, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine”.
The councilor detailed that, of the 170 million euros painted for 2023, 1.4 million correspond to the Island Water Council; 12.7 million to Inalsa; 3.9 million to the Autonomous Island Organization for Tax Management; 6.2 million to the Lanzarote Security and Emergency Consortium; 8.9 million to the Lanzarote Water Consortium; 2.6 million to Eólicas de Lanzarote S.L.; 3.4 million to the Foreign Promotion Society, and 29.1 million to the CACT Lanzarote.
“Well, if we add the economic resources contemplated in the eight dependent entities to the Cabildo's Budget, we find consolidated budgets of 239 million euros”, added the vice president.
On the other hand, the councilor highlighted that there will be multiple items dedicated to subsidies for social emergency, NGOs, mental health projects, housing and rental projects, scholarships for studies, for victims of gender violence, for the primary sector or for sports, among others.
Finally, Bergaz insisted on the social nature of these budgets, “with increases in various items aimed at improving public services in different social areas and attention to our neighbors, especially those most vulnerable, as we have committed since the beginning of the mandate and as we have complied in numerous areas such as Dependency”.