This platform allows you to know more about the costs of public services. But the left believes that the information is incomplete and that the questionnaire launched in parallel is not neutral.
Do you know how much childbirth costs? Or the education of a college student? To help taxpayers estimate the value of public services accessible free of charge, the government has put the Get it for my taxes online platform. At the same time, a consultation was launched. Citizens are invited to give their opinion on the use of taxes, on the areas where more or less should be spent. “I travel a lot in the field and, regularly, French people tell me that they want to see exactly how and where our taxes are going”reported Gabriel Attal, the Minister Delegate for Public Accounts, on RTL.
But the launch of the government site makes people cringe, especially on the left. The platform is accused of giving incomplete information and even presenting an anti-tax bias. Franceinfo explains to you why the site carried by the executive is the subject of strong criticism.
A lack of “tax education”
To illustrate the cost of public services, with the stated objective of “transparency”, the government platform takes some concrete examples: the maintenance of a kilometer of road (110,000 euros), a year of schooling in a college (8,200 euros), or even childbirth (2,600 euros to 5,600 euros ). We also learn that the municipalities spend 76 euros per year and per inhabitant to maintain the parks and that the holding of a presidential election costs 4.76 euros per voter.
“A good idea”for the centrist senator Nathalie Goulet, who works on taxation. “The citizen has no idea of the cost of public services, or how the money is spent”, she believes, with Public Senate.
“Detailing health care is interesting”, abounds Vincent Drezet, spokesperson for the Attac association, which militates “for tax justice”. Questioned by Public Sénat, he nevertheless made several criticisms, in particular on the absence of a “Tax Pedagogy”. He regrets that there is no “a sentence to explain the difference between ‘taxes’ and ‘contributions'”. A pitfall also spotted by the deputy France insoumise Hadrian Clouetwho accuses Gabriel Attal of confusing taxes (collected by the State and not assigned to a specific object) and social contributions (collected by social funds and assigned to defined expenses).
The co-founder of the think tank “Sens du service public”, Emilie Agnoux denounces for her part a “comms strategy”. According to this activist from the Place Publique movement, the government initiative “betrays a purely economic vision of profitability”. “Except that it is a question of solidarity, redistribution, care, the human, links, complex issues, cross-interventions, etc. In short, human matter and complexity that we cannot reduce to costs”, she throws on Twitter.
Data deemed incomplete
The economist Thomas Piketty, questioned on France Inter, considers insufficient the information published on the new platform of the government. For example, in education, the economist considers that“you have to go beyond the average” the cost of a year of schooling, in order to highlight the inequalities between establishments. He pleads to know the breakdown of the cost “depending on the territories, depending on the average income of the municipality”.
Several public expenditures are also missing. Indeed, in the category “companies”only expenditure “energy aid for businesses” And “work accident” are mentioned. “The site says nothing about the billions of direct and indirect aid to businesses each year from the State, communities and their operators”, denounces Emilie Agnoux.
Other examples, linked to more or less recent news, have been noted. “And the cost of a #McKinsey PowerPoint?”, launched the elected La France insoumise Julie Garnier, on Twitter. Journalist Nassira El Moaddem also arrested Gabriel Attal. “Will the site “Get it for my taxes” be able to tell us where the money from the Marianne Fund has been put very precisely?she asked the Minister of Public Accounts on Twitterin reference to the controversy over the use of this fund set up after the assassination of Samuel Paty.
Finally, Emilie Agnoux regrets the lack of clarity of some of the information. She cites the example of swimming pools. The government site tells us that a grant of 170,000 euros has been awarded to the Portes de France-Thionville urban community. “What to know [cela] enlighten the citizen on the cost of operation and investment of such public equipment?”, asks the activist.
A “binary” and “simplistic” questionnaire
Alongside the informative component of the site “Have it for my taxes”, the government has also chosen to launch a consultation. The objective is to find out how taxpayers want their money to be spent. “In addition to its name, which raises questions, the questionnaire is based on clearly oriented questions”immediately denounced the Attac association in a blog post on the Mediapart site. “In addition, he carefully avoids asking citizens for their opinion on tax policy”writes Attac again.
The first question asked is: “In general, taking into account the different taxes (local taxes, income taxes, VAT, etc.) would you say that you currently pay…?” The proposed answers come in this order: “Too much tax”, “the right level of taxes”, “not enough taxes”, “without opinion”. Further, it is asked: “And for you, is paying taxes more of a reason for…?”. Possible answers include a positive term (“pride”), two negative qualifiers (“resignation” And “anger”) and three neutrals (“indifference”, “none of that” and “no opinion”). Emilie Agnoux denounces “the few positive terms” associated with paying taxes.
Vincent Drezet, of the Attac association, deplores a consultation based on “binary questions” And “closed and simplistic answers”. “The only open question is on the expenditure that we think needs to be reduced. We could have imagined a different question on future public expenditure, for example”, he regrets. For her part, Emilie Agnoux remarks that it is impossible to answer that expenditure should not be reduced in “none” domain.