The Popular Party Group in the Cabildo of Lanzarote assures that the budget project for 2023 presented by Dolores Corujo "is a mirage of the island model that they say they promote with their management" and adds that "it responds more to a expired government than to a government that really has ambition and desire to solve the real problems of Lanzarote."
"And it is that after failing to pass the 2022 budget, although it had a majority to do so, the project that Corujo puts on the table is totally disappointing." This was acknowledged by the councilor and PP candidate for the presidency of the Cabildo, Jacobo Medina, at the press conference offered on Tuesday morning to assess the accounts for this year, in which he already stated that after May, "when the PP holds the presidency, it will carry out the credit modifications that are necessary to achieve a fair and progressive budget for the island."
"The budgets are a complete bluff because they do not respond at all to what they are trying to sell us from the government of socialists and Podemos," Medina stressed, who insisted that "the social muscle, economic diversification and clean energies are conspicuous by their absence."
In this sense, the Popular Party points to the "cut of 96.31% in the Social Housing Observatory, which practically means the total dismantling of the program for the purchase of housing and allocating it to social housing" and adds that "the reality is that the island corporation did not acquire a single property with the 13,827,000 euros of the credit that were allocated to the Observatory in 2021, and that represented half of the total loan signed with financial entities to supposedly finance investments."
Medina has also emphasized the "cut" of the Corujo government to the island of La Graciosa "which sees its economic allocation reduced by 50%; which for the PP is unthinkable within budgets that presume to be expansive because what they do is leave the residents of Caleta de Sebo in the ditch, whom the PSOE and Podemos treat as second-class residents."
Among the items that decrease, the Municipal Cooperation Plans also stand out, which go from 9 million euros to 5.8 million, which represents a decrease of 35.41%. "If in 2021 we clearly bet on public works to boost the economy in difficult times after the crisis, now we see how, as a whole, this Area reduces its budget by almost 2 million euros," said the former Minister of Public Works during the first stage of the mandate.
In addition, the Populars have highlighted the reduction in Industry (-62.93%); Commerce (-39.04%); Crafts (-30%) or Landscape and Food Sovereignty, which "decreases almost 40%, which translates into almost 80,000 euros."
In relation to Sports, the item decreases mainly in what refers to sports facilities that lose almost 1 million euros. In Transport, the PP councilor pointed out "the contradiction of betting on public transport if then in infrastructures of this matter almost half a million euros are reduced (-40%). Incongruous also the decrease of almost 14% in the Biosphere Reserve, Citizen Participation (-60%) or in the field of minors and drug addiction."
PP Amendments
The Popular Party has presented 8 proposals for budgetary improvement worth 1,800,000 euros. In his initiatives, Medina explained, "funding is included for several urban transformation projects in the island's capital, such as Altavista (500,000 euros), Calle La Inés (100,000 euros) and Leon y Castillo (400,000 euros)."
Likewise, 240,000 euros are included for a Library in La Graciosa; 60,000 euros for a calisthenics park in La Santa; 100,000 euros for a dog park in Playa Honda and 200,000 euros for the resurfacing of Avenida Islas Canarias in Playa Blanca, in the section between the service station at the entrance of the town and the port area.
In terms of Heritage, the Populars want the Cabildo to commit to the rehabilitation of the Casa de Los Arroyo (200,000 euros).
