Belgium/Liege: The municipal college presents its updated management plan

The Liege Municipal College has updated the City's Management Plan. It will be submitted to the municipal council on June 27 and 28.

The update of the Management Plan was mandatory in order to receive financial assistance from the Walloon Region under its oxygen plan. Liège is to receive 394 million euros in the form of a loan spread over five years. This should enable it to meet the cost of pensions.

The management plan includes 60 measures affecting both revenue and expenditure. The expected savings over five years are 143 million euros.

Christine Defraigne, Liège's alderman for finance, explains: "We have worked with different objectives: stabilizing our public finances, modernizing the administration and, of course, maintaining a quality service to our population that we do not want to affect. I would like to point out that there will be no increase in the IPP surcharge and the real estate tax. But there are certain pockets where we must be able to glean revenues that we feel are fair. I am thinking, for example, of a better contribution from the big soccer clubs on our territory in the context of high-risk matches that require a lot of police capacity". We also note the announcement of a review of the events policy.

Among the emblematic measures of the plan, Mayor Willy Demeyer also points out: "We have, for example, provided for a number of additional synergies between the City and the OCMW. Not to reduce the capacity of one or the other, but to redirect the forces. For example, if we save money in work services, we can hire additional social workers. We also have, for a file that has been in the news, the return to balance the situation of the high school.".

Source: www.rtbf.be