There has been a Plenary Meeting of the Town Council in Almuñécar where it was proposed that the IBI tax be dropped to 0.90% from the present 1.0% – it was rejected.

The motion was put forward by the PA and PSOE but the governing PP with their coalition partners Más Almuñécar and the independent councillor, Eva Gaitán blocked the motion. In fact, the only party that the motion managed to sway was the IU with its single councillor seat, occupied by Fermín Tejero.

The governing party’s main allies, Más Almuñécar, headed by Councillor Luis Aragón, pointed out that that main income for a town hall; granting building licences, had long since dried up, so it would be impossible to lower the IBI tax without cutting back on social services.

Finally, the PA headed by Juan Carlos Benavides, lamented that in all these years that the PP has been governing they have never once taken up the offer made by the opposition parties to sit down and work out package to “sanitise” the municipal accounts. Instead, claims Councillor Benavides, they prefer to “ransack the taxpayers pockets” as an easy way out.

Editorial Note: The IBI (Impuesto sobre Bienes Immobilarios) is a yearly property tax, charged at 1% of the official value of the house (Catastro), which pays for the rubbish collection, etc.

(News: Almunecar, CostaTropical,Granada, Andalucia)