My Right Ovary Hurts, Why?

Carlos Sanchez article The Confidential :

A veteran business leader said some time ago there are no negotiations without liturgy. He meant that before each negotiating process involved always put foot on the wall, at least to the gallery, and declare to the four winds that will not yield an inch in their approaches. They say it solemnly, as if it were a revealed truth. But after a reasonable time, however, good principles are diluted. To the extent that in most cases you can apply that old aphorism attributed to Groucho Marx that their partners used to say: "If you do not like my principles, do not worry, I have others."

A regional financing something similar happens. Since the vice Solbes officially launched the debate back in July, all statements have been grand, but not a figure to put in their mouth. It appeared that before the end of the year, the citizens would know the Government's proposal, but lo and behold it reaches 2009 remains unknown and not a miserable figure, which is ultimately what matters to taxpayers. Many philosophy and many husks that only abounds in platitudes (global sufficiency guarantee or equity of the system), but in view of document presented yesterday by the Government to the regions is impossible to know the answer to three key questions: How much will the new system (it is absurd to talk of new model) Who will benefit more? and, above all, where it is heading a country that dwarfs every five years is the figure of the central state administration for the regions?

goes without saying that one of the best inventions that Spain has given birth in 31 years of democracy has to do with the existence of peripheral administrations that bring the action of government to citizens in different areas (local or autonomic). These good intentions were reflected in a somewhat incoherent, the military broadsword was there, in the 1978 Constitution, but the Title VIII helped the process START-autonomous. And there is no doubt that this country has taken a great leap forward in the last three decades at all levels. Thanks, among other things, territorial decentralization of public expenditure.

A model exhausted

This model, however, does not seem exhausted and overstretched in their current terms since it is generating all kinds of duplication and inefficiencies in public spending. Hence, it is necessary a new funding model that goes far beyond a simple allocation of money by the Minister of Economy of the day more or less arbitrary, and camaraderie are distributed in the regions. Uu money which, incidentally, has no central government, so to be financed through borrowing, which is a real nonsense. SMEs and families do not have sufficient resources to finance their needs, while the government saturate the international credit markets in search of liquidity. A great example of solidarity. That also means that billions of euros it costs the new system, intended to finance current expenditure, pay will not be raising taxes or reducing public spending, as would be reasonable, but the next generation will have to deal with these debts. Another example of intergenerational solidarity.

The worst, however, is that the new system goes a bit more in the dismantling of direct taxation as the backbone of State taxation. Instead of walking towards the creation of autonomous taxes, there is another bite at the income tax. Not only extends the assignment of income tax to 50%, but above all, the tax is frayed by increasing the regulatory capacity of the regions in matters as the minimum capital as personal or family policy fee deductions or tax scales modulation in terms of what each regional parliament to rule. Seriously endangering further market unity on fiscal matters.

income redistribution

words, instead of keeping an effective instrument for redistributing income and welfare throughout the country, choose its regionalization, leaving the state powerless to deal certain economic policy decisions. Especially if you consider that this is a huge tax with revenue-raising power.

seem more reasonable the existence of strictly autonomous taxes supplemented by contributions from the state to ensure a consistent quality of essential public services, which would have a double advantage. First, the regional tax would be more transparent and therefore more 'visible' to the public. As a result, local politicians would be required to stand up to their constituents on the level of taxation that applies to every territory. What happens now is that the 'barons' regional-of all political-hide behind the silhouette of madrid to hide their shame. Accusing the managers of the state of being harsh with social demands.

Instead of exploring this path, the Government has chosen to give birth to a complex system of financing that creates various funds tailored to the consumer. Rich regions ('more dynamic' according to the politically correct) have called the Competitiveness Fund, while the poor (now called lower relative wealth) will have access to a Partnership Fund, which must be added the current Sufficiency Fund and the Fund Inter-territorial Compensation.

As shown, the document presented today is a marvel of regional equidistance, but still does not solve the underlying problem: the lack of a definitive model can upgrade their basic variables automatically and not every five years. And, at the same time is able to establish the principle that spending is responsible for revenue, which would help eliminate many of the current wasteful. That is, something like a federal state.

will not be worth recalling that the current model (which has been updated to regional pressure shock) has done little to bring the income levels between regions , which says very little about their effectiveness. The seven regions in 1995 had a per capita GDP above the average (Aragon, Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Madrid, Navarra, Basque Country and La Rioja) continue in the same location twelve years later, according to data from the Regional Accounts. By contrast, the poorest are still there. In the well.

Despite the enormous resources that have come from the EU and the state in recent years, Ontario has cut just 3.5 points more than a decade on average (74.8% has gone to 78.3%), Extremadura is at 4.6 points (from 64.1% to 68.7%) and Castilla La Mancha is not only not improved but has been far from average. Of relative wealth equivalent to 82.1% in 1995, has fallen to 79.3%, which says little for the different funding schemes every five years cluck topics such as the guarantee of funding for basic services or the adequacy of the system .

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