ORIHUELA BUDGET STILL UNRESOLVED
As Councillor Bob Houliston continues to insist on ‘budgetary fair play' for the Costa his financial counterpart, Juan Ignacio Lopez-Bas (CLR), is hoping to reach agreement regarding departmental allocations before the end of this week so that council budgets can be approved at an extraordinary plenary session later this month.
The coastal development makes up 35.2% of the municipality's population, almost 1% more than last year, representing 32,014 residents while the city of Orihuela numbers 33,933 residents, 0.5% less than last year.
As such Houliston has asked for an allocation of between 5 and 6 million euro for the Orihuela Costa but his share is understood to be little more than 2 million. The funding is required to improve the region's infrastructure which, according to the councilor, was badly managed by the previous administration.
Lopez-Bas has had to cut departmental requests from all the government councilors by 15%, the reason being a reduction in council income of €10 million (down from €69 million in 2011 to €59 million for 2012), although in the end it should be almost €61 million because of the 10% in property tax imposed by the Government.
Lopez-Bas says that that during 2007, when Monica Lorente first became mayor, the Orihuela Council was repaying interest of approximately €6,000 per day on its loans. Now, that figure is up to €21,000 per day for which he blames the previous administration.
As a result of what he perceives to be the inflexibility of the Councillor for Finance, Bob Houliston has demanded to see the mayor, Monserrate Guillén (Green Party), before deciding whether or not to support the budget. Anything other than his support will undoubtedly see the defeat of any council vote. Houliston currently holds seat number 25 with the Coalition and PP parties having 12 seats apiece.
In November Houliston was expelled from the CLR-CLARO pact, and now is fighting on his own for the rights of the Orihuela Costa.
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