Grenoble, Paris or Nice are among the bad students, according to a study published on Tuesday by the Institut Montaigne, which France Inter was able to consult.
The debt of major French cities has tended to increase since 2021. This is revealed by a study by the Institut Montaigne on the mid-term balance sheet of municipal teams elected in 2020, published on Tuesday and which France Inter was able to consult exclusively.
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The think tank, rather classified as liberal, studied the finances and investments of 12 major French cities: Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Nice, Paris, Rennes, Strasbourg and Toulouse. According to him, this indebtedness constitutes a potential threat for future investments necessary in favor of the ecological transition.
No “good students” on the right or “bad students” on the right
The conclusion of the Institut Montaigne is without appeal: there are not on the one hand the good students on the right, and on the other the bad students on the left. “Green, socialist or right-wing town halls are equally exposed to the risk of financial mismanagement”writes the institute.
The main measurement criterion used for this study is the cities’ ability to reduce their debt, calculated according to the estimated duration to repay their debt if they devoted all the gross savings they have to it.
Toulouse, Montpellier and Lyon on the podium
It is Toulouse which is the most virtuous city, according to this criterion. The LR municipality led by Jean-Luc Moudenc has a debt reduction period of 3 years in 2021. However, this period increases to four and a half years on the basis of its 2023 forecast budget.
Montpellier wins the second step of the podium. The city of socialist Michaël Delafosse can claim a duration of 3.7 years in 2021, but which climbs to 7 and a half years in 2023. Lyon, led by EELV Grégory Doucet completes the top three. The estimated duration in 2021 is 4.1 years. Based on its 2023 forecast budget, this duration increases to 4.5 years.
Up to 53 years of debt relief period
In the last three places of the ranking, we find Grenoble in 10th place. Eric Piolle’s EELV municipality has a debt reduction period of 8.3 years in 2021. This period drops to 6 and a half years in 2023. Paris occupies 11th and penultimate place with a period of 24 years in 2021. On the basis of its 2023 provisional budget, this duration drops to nine years.
The 12th and last place is occupied by Nice. The city of Christian Estrosi (Horizons) has a duration of 52.9 years for 2021, well beyond the vigilance threshold set at 10 years and the alert threshold set at 12 years by the public finance programming law for 2018-2022. This duration drops to 19 years in 2023 for the Riviera city.
A “degradation” of finances this year
“It is worrying to note that the provisional budgets for 2023 envisage a notable deterioration for most of the cities studied”, judges the Institut Montaigne in its study. This is the case for example of Lille, PS municipality directed by Martine Aubry, with an estimated duration of 11 years, of Strasbourg, EELV municipality directed by Jeanne Barseghian with an estimated duration of 12 years or of Rennes, PS municipality directed by Nathalie Appeared with an estimated duration of 13.6 years.
“We see a undoubtedly increased vulnerability for many cities in the face of the context we are experiencing with the increase in interest rates and especially in the face of a need to invest more and more massively in the years to come to meet the challenges in particular of environmental transition”according to Lisa Thomas Darbois, head of the Economy and State Action Unit at the Institut Montaigne and one of the authors of the study.
Lille invests 50% in ecological transition projects
This study is also specifically interested in the green investments of municipalities, such as the thermal renovation of municipal buildings, the planting of trees or the share of organic products in the menus of school canteens, but excluding the question of transport, which especially of the organizing authorities that are the metropolises and the regions.
Nice and Nantes appear to be the only cities to have a real green budget, that is to say a classification of budgetary and tax expenditure according to their impact on the environment, explains the Institut Montaigne. But it is Lille which ranks very far ahead, with 50% of its investment expenditure directed towards ecological transition, clearly ahead of two cities led by environmentalists, Grenoble and Bordeaux, with 20% and 18% respectively.
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Conversely, Paris only comes in 11th place with an estimated share of 6%. Montpellier is in 12th and last place with 4%. “On the environmental side, the results of our analyzes reveal increased means in favor of the ecological transition generalized to all municipalities under the impetus of the “greens” with relatively more favorable results”notes the study.