Monday night, the Municipal House approved the budget of the City Council for 2012. This is the first budget of the government formed last June as a result of the outcome of recent elections. The budget was approved three months later than planned because, in a responsible manner, we conditioned approval upon the outcome of negotiations with employee representatives of the Corporation, as it directly affects municipal accounts. The budget was approved with votes in favor of the municipal government and the abstention of the Socialist Group. I want to publicly acknowledge the sense of responsibility shown in this episode.
The budget submitted by the Government draws five main values that are absolutely essential in our policy, and that also constitute the core of this document: social justice and equality, austerity, transparency, reliability, and rigor and sense of duty. These five areas are the foundation of the lines of income and expenses that the City Hall and its agencies will apply during the current year.
The budgeting process has been difficult, without the ability, dedication and applied financial engineering of the Deputy Mayor for Finance, Jordi Mas, we would hardly been able to bring it to fruition. It is a difficult budget as it includes necessary restrictions, containment in expenditure and drastic reductions in investment. The situation faced by municipal finances forced the application of special measures, and especially the introduction of a new political culture, which makes austerity and the exercise of responsibility the foundation of a good government.
But it is also a budget that makes a firm commitment in favor of concrete social policies and services, which encompass a broad chapter called "Sitges of the people." This is the most important part (19.3%) of the total 48.7 million making up the budget, after the part which is unfortunately the larger (37.8%), which is intended to narrow our serious budget deficit. As a "Sitges of the people", we understand social policies, initiatives to support families and groups and actions aimed at improving the quality of life of all the inhabitants of Sitges. The approved document also contains, despite the forced restrictions, items intended for the socio-economic revitalization of the town.
The 2012 budget was made possible thanks to the efforts applied by many sectors of the town: organizations, societies and all the universe of festivities, all those sectors offset the decline in their respective budget lines with an increase in personal or collective dedication; companies and self-employed of Sitges that assumed the irrational late payments of their bills by the City Hall, the group of employees of the City Hall that agreed to give up certain rights acquired to avoid the reduction of staff; and all the citizens of the municipality, who must give up some services or facilities due to the serious situation affecting municipal finances. I want to thank all these sectors, groups and citizens, and I also want to encourage them to continue working every day, without losing faith or hope.
