Faced with a delicate budgetary situation, Anne Hidalgo increases the property tax in Paris

Europe 1 with AFP 7:04 p.m., November 07, 2022

Faced with a delicate budgetary situation, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo has decided to increase the property tax by 52%, giving up on her campaign promise not to increase taxes, she announced in a letter on Monday.

The property tax rate will increase from 13.5% to 20.5% in 2023, except for owners who undertake the thermal renovation of their apartment and those "encountering economic difficulties", holders of solidarity allowances (Aspa, ASI, AAH) or indebted for more than 75 years, specifies the elected socialist in a letter to his constituents.

These two categories will benefit from total exemption.

For the others, an owner of a 50m2 will see his property tax go from 438 to 665 euros on average, and that of a 75 m2 from 576 to 874 euros, according to figures communicated by the City.

The property tax "is today in Paris the lowest in France at 13.5% against 41.61% on average in large French cities, and it has not increased since 2011", argues Anne Hidalgo.

“A lot has happened since then” 

The capital has 2.1 million inhabitants but only 32% of owners, a percentage again lower than that of other cities, underlined the First Deputy Emmanuel Grégoire during a press briefing, acknowledging "a very important effort" to the taxpayers concerned.

>>

- Paris City Hall renounces controversial constructions at the foot of the Eiffel Tower

“We said, during the campaign (municipal elections in 2020), that we would not increase taxes”, admitted the elected socialist, “but a lot has happened since: the Covid crisis, the Ukrainian crisis, the energy crisis (...), systemic crises that are long term".

This decision "will make it possible to maintain a high quality of our public services, to continue to invest in housing, in the ecological transition, in the maintenance and modernization of our heritage and our equipment, in the beautification of our streets and of our gardens," says Anne Hidalgo, who plans 1.7 billion in investment for 2023.

Anne Hidalgo denounces the lack of financial support from the State 

This increase should bring the City additional revenue of 586 million in 2023, anticipates finance assistant Paul Simondon.

According to this other elected socialist, the City will only borrow in 2023 514 million against 860 this year, and its outstanding debt should be around 8 billion euros.

Since the health crisis of 2020, Anne Hidalgo has denounced the lack of financial support from the State to cities, in particular to her own.

During the budget review, the government "refused to examine the amendments" aimed in particular at increasing the tourist tax for luxury hotels and palaces, she writes, which means that she has not " no choice" but to raise this local tax.

"As often with Ms. Hidalgo, the State has a good back", replied to the press the Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal, for whom "the State has strongly supported the city of Paris".

But it cannot "make up for the management problems of the City of Paris" and its "lack of structural reforms", he added, castigating the fact that there are "more civil servants at the City of Paris than at the European Commission, civil servants who are still not at 35 hours".

The Parisian LR opposition, led by Rachida Dati, denounced in a press release a "bankrupt" city with an "explosion of Parisian debt", which according to her reached 10 billion euros.