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22 August 2020 In the last 20 years, tax revenues have increased by 166 billion euros. If in 2000 the tax authorities and local authorities had collected 350.5 billion euros, in 2019 the revenue, at current prices, rose to 516.5 billion. The analysis is by the CGIA of Mestre.  

Taxes and public car
In percentage terms, the growth in these twenty years was 47.4, 3.5 points more than the increase recorded in the same period of the national GDP expressed in nominal terms (+ 43.9%). "Can anyone say with certainty - observes the coordinator of the Studies Office Paolo Zabeo - that thanks to 166 billion more taxes paid in the last 20 years, the public car has improved? In other words, justice, safety, transport , especially those at the local level, are infrastructures, health and education more efficient today than they were then? Or, have families and businesses been forced to pay more and have received less and less from the state? ". The CGIA has no doubts: "between the two hypotheses we feel we can confirm the latter, also because this maxi levy has impoverished the country, causing, together with the crises that have matured in these twenty years, Italy's growth equal to zero - notes Zabeo - that no other country in the rest of Europe has registered ".

State Regions Local authorities
If the bill was paid by the Italian taxpayers, the benefits, on the other hand, went above all to the Treasury and to a small extent to the Regions and local authorities. "In the collective imagination - affirms the secretary Renato Mason - the idea has spread that in recent years Governors and Mayors would have become, despite themselves, new tax collectors, while the central State would have lightened the tax burden on taxpayers. In reality, things went differently. If it is true that in the last 20 years local taxes have increased by 37.1%, those collected by the central administration have increased by 49.3. In absolute terms, by the Regions and local authorities we have suffered a tax burden of 20.3 billion, while the burden of the national tax has risen by 145.7 billion. In other words, if local taxes have started to run since 2000, the revenue ones have exploded, with the result that Italian taxpayers have been forced to pay more and more ".  

Autonomy can do well
"In recent years - concludes Zabeo - the theme of differentiated autonomy has been seen as an opposition between the North and the South of the country. Instead, it is a game played between the center and the periphery of the state. those who want a public administration that works better and costs less and those who defend the status quo, because by transferring functions and competences they are afraid of losing power and legitimacy. And to maintain positions that are no longer defensible, the proponents of this reform have been accused of wanting to further impoverish the most troubled territorial realities of the country ". From the CGIA, on the other hand, they are convinced that this reform can be good for the whole of Italy and not only for the regions that first asked for greater autonomy.

In the race Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna
"Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna are the regions that are experiencing the most advanced phase of this game - points out Mason - but many others, in different forms, have expressed an interest in starting negotiations with the Executive. More autonomy equals more responsibility and it is clear that the savings and the extra revenue produced must remain, for the most part, in the territories that generate them. In turn, the more developed territorial realities will have to help those who are difficulties, applying the principle of solidarity. If these three regions succeed in getting the reform off the ground, it is clear that they will cause a carry-over effect that will require the reduction of public spending. Consequently, this will contribute to lower taxes and increase the quality and quantity of services provided to citizens and businesses ".