Municipalities threaten strike over ‘insufficient’ govt grants

The union of municipalities on Friday threatened that municipal workers across the island may go on strike if the central government does not increase the grants given to local authorities. Larnaca mayor and union of municipalities chairman Andreas Vyras said after a meeting of mayors that there is “unanimity” among them “for taking measures”, though he did acknowledge that Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou had “viewed” the municipalities’ requests for more funding “positively”. “We will await [the government’s] final written position next week, and accordingly, the union of municipalities’ board of directors will meet and inform our colleagues about how we are progressing,” he said. The key issue municipalities have raised is that the local government reform law of 2024, which set the conditions under which they currently operate, foresaw a fixed amount in grants offered to municipalities across the island, while “operating expenses” have been “on an upward trend” in the intervening two years. Additionally, he said, his municipalities may be asked to “bear the burden of the cost of landfilling waste”, as well as repaying €16 million for waste management units in the Larnaca district village of Koshi and the Limassol district village of Pentakomo. He said the central government had suggested that municipalities increase local taxes to cover the losses. “This is something people should know, that it is not the municipal councils which are responsible for tax increases, but essentially, it is the proposal from the central government’s side, an official proposal, not just something which was said in a corridor,” he said. On this front, he stressed that local authorities are not mismanaging their resources at present, and that as such, more funds from the central government are required. “I challenge anyone to come and see how municipalities are managed now. I challenge any [audit] body to come and see whether or not there is mismanagement in any municipality. Huge steps have been taken in recent years,” he said. He added that “people must know that tomorrow there is no other proposal” other than to either ask the central government for more money or to raise municipal taxes, as “we must also collect rubbish, clean our towns, and maintain the roads where they are dangerous”. “We do not want to increase taxes, but the central state is forcing us to do so,” he said. He went on to say that as such, taxes may exist by between €150 and €200 per resident, and described this as a “time bomb”, before saying of this that it has come about due to “negligence for years” on the part of the central government. Asked why municipalities agreed in advance of the 2024 reform to fixed grants, he said that “it was the only way for the reform to proceed”, but that “since then, we have found that a fixed amount cannot remain so, because it means that a euro five years ago is worth about 30 per cent less than it is today”. “In recent years, the same expenses have increased by around 25 to 30 per cent, with the result that in order to be able to cover our expenses, we have to increase our taxes,” he said. He added that “we are the country which has the smallest proportion of state grants [for local government] of all the European country”. Meanwhile, Nicosia mayor Charalambos Prountzos complained that since the reform was implemented, municipalities in the Nicosia district receive less funding from the state than they did beforehand. He said that municipalities receive around €22.5m per year, having received around €24m before, while around 94 per cent of his own municipality’s outgoings constitute “inelastic expenses” – funds which cannot be cut.