Faro Council has received approval for its 2015 budget with a slim majority in the City Council.
The executive was delighted to report that this was the first year that income would equal expenditure, thus breaking the unwritten code adopted for years by many Algarve councils that expenditure should wildly exceed income.
The Faro council executive states that the budgeted revenue is €46,711,090 for 2015, and that it had come up with a budget that predicted expenditure of exactly the same amount, “in compliance with the principle of financial balance.”
Faro’s mayor, Rogério ‘U-turn’ Bacalhau saw the Great Plan for Faro - 2015, approved by the PSD and CDS, with abstentions from the PS and votes against from the BE, CDU and CFC.
The mayor stressed the "historic lack short-term debt" due to the payment of long overdue invoices in November 2014, failing to mention that this only was made possible by the successful council loan application to the government for an additional €16.7 million, repayable over the next 20 years.
http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/3746-faro-council-borrows-more-money
Bacalhau did warn that council debts are not yet fully under control and emphasised that "although today the debts are dramatically less than in previous years (in four years the executive has indeed reduced overall debt by €30 million), we still require firm debt management and it is not yet possible to plan for higher levels of investment."
The mayor did add some party political waffle to his budget speech, referring to “concrete actions to promote quality of life, to promote economic and social development of the municipality and its reputation."
They will be six major action areas in Faro in 2015: fixing public spaces and roads; social support and fixing the housing stock; grants to parishes; grants to community organisations; and encouraging private investment.
Interestingly, the mayor has made close to zero housing or shelter provision for those displaced from those Ria Formaosa islands lying in his council area. Land has been purchased by the council in Montenegro but no further plans have been announced.
Bacalhau's U-turn on this shameful episode has lost him respect and votes and will be remembered long after his budget balances and he retires back to obscurity.
