The Almuñécar Town Council will not be able to reduce the IBI (local property tax), they say, because of the debt acquired after losing court cases.

The said debt has come about from having to pay back money received from developers for projects that never came about; not through the fault of the building developers, we should add. As the money was received over a decade ago, it has long since been spent on other things, so there are “no funds left to return.”

Consequently, says the Municipal Auditor, any tax cuts or decrease in income for the municipal coffers, is out of the question.

The Auditor dropped this bombshell at the last Plenary Meeting of the Town Council. This came in response to CA’s motion to lower the property-tax rate.

At this point the Auditor ceded the floor to the Mayor, Trinidad Herrera to spell out what the state of the accounts was.

Municipalities have their hands tied by the Plan de Ajuste Económico, imposed by Hacienda whereby they cannot spend more than they take in; i.e., they can’t run up debt.

The amount that the Town Hall has to return to building developers runs into 1,239.000 euros in one case and 2,198,000 euros in the other, after the law courts found in favour of the said building developers.

Editorial comment: the irony is that it was the leader of the CA, Juan Carlos Benavides, who was mayor when this all happened, yet it is he who is now beating the present Mayor over the head concerning the lack of IBI reduction.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)