The municipal budget for Olhão has been approved at a special city council meeting over the weekend. The council has been running the municipality on the standby formula, using 1/12th of the previous year’s budget every month.
Novo Rumo abstained, and the Left Bloc and the Communists voted against the budget.
The budget agreed is €32 million, the same figure that had been kicked out in January when all the opposition party members voted against Pina’s proposals. In January the Social Democrats claimed it voted against the budget as it was "trying to avoid increasing the council’s debt by more than €8.5 million," and the Socialists Party members accusing the Social Democrats of being "two faced."
The Mayor of Olhão, António Pina, said of the new deal for 2014, "Above all, we wanted everyone to participate, because with or without a budget the difficulties are the same and this new period requires new positions from the socialists and the opposition."
Pina also praised the stance of the opposition PSD who "sat at the table and talked" as well as the independent movement Novo Rumo, but regretted the attitude of his nemesis, the Left Bloc.
"I note with disappointment and hurt that the Left Bloc, which submitted 9 proposals of which 8 were included in the final budget, did not change its position," said Pina, adding that one of the Left Bloc’s requirements was a 50% decrease in support for non-professional sporting activity, which the mayor simply could not accept.
One part of the budgetary deal that has reached no conlcusion is the fate of the the dodgy municipal company Fesnima* which was originally to be re-incorporated into the council's activities, transferring its debt to the council's balance sheet. The same action had been planned for Olhão Markets which is run by a company on behalf of the council but these key moves have been left out of the new budget leaving both with an uncertain future.
The budget wranglings were held against a backdrop of construction work in Olhão as contractors continued to dig up the historic calçada pavements in many of Olhão’s squares which are being replaced with unattractive stone pavement slabs. It is feared that this work is to enter a second phase and the pedestrian shopping streets in the historic centre of Olhao are to receive the same treatment.
A local shopkeeper commented “why is the council spending €490,000 digging up and replacing our famous old calçada pavements which are full of history and which tourists come to see from all over the world? None of the locals want this, doesn’t the Camara know there is a crisis on?”
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* Fesnima was set up to promote Olhão through 'cultural, gastronomic, sports and recreational activities' and undertakes a large amount of what the council should be doing anyway. It is a company operating from the council offices and great suspicion has always surrounded it finances.
