A Sudoku puzzle to create a more equitable system that also improves Catalonia's economic indicators

BarcelonaThe more one delves into the data of the new financing system put forward by the Spanish government, the more one sees the number of variables that had to be incorporated. The goal of the ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia) was to be able to claim that Catalonia would benefit considerably, and the goal of Vice President María Jesús Montero was to present it as a more equitable model than the previous one, since this is the banner of southern socialists like herself. Looking at the numbers, it seems that the seemingly unsolvable puzzle has been successfully solved. Undoubtedly, the new system benefits Catalonia much more than the previous one, while also being more equitable, that is, more effectively guaranteeing equality for all Spaniards in access to public services such as health and education. The challenge here is to find a way for a resident of a neighborhood like La Mina in Sant Adrià to have access to the same resources as someone from the Las Trescientas neighborhood in Cáceres, something that is not currently the case. Based on the 2022 settlement figures, Extremadura had €4,018 per capita and Catalonia €3,264 to pay for exactly the same services. Therefore, the current model does not generate equality but inequality. Specifically, it penalizes the poor population in territories that, on paper, are wealthy, such as Catalonia. Therefore, the new system is more equitable because it focuses more on real people and less on territories. And as former president José Montilla once said, there are more poor people in Catalonia than Extremadura has inhabitants.

The new system is more equitable because it tends toward ordinality. If you look at the table, no one loses more than two positions. Unlike now, where Madrid loses 10 positions and Catalonia and the Balearic Islands 7 in per capita resources. Therefore, if ordinality for everyone cannot be guaranteed by law due to the distortion caused by Madrid (because of the capital city effect) or Cantabria (because of its overfunding), one idea would be to set that two-position limit. The other effect that makes it more equitable is that it reduces the gap between the most and least benefited regions. In the current system, there is almost a €1,200 difference per inhabitant between the first, Cantabria, and the last, the Valencian Community. Now this figure will be reduced by more than half, to around €500-€600. In relative terms, in 2027 Cantabria would have an index of 127.8 (assuming the average is 100), which would mean surpassing the last-placed region, Murcia (94.68), by 33.12 points. Now that difference is reduced to 12 points (excluding the specific circumstances of the Canary Islands). More equality equates to greater solidarity. And greater inequality equates to exploitation for some and privilege for others.

In short, in this system Catalonia is relatively well-positioned in all the variables considered, but it is not the most benefited region; that distinction belongs to the Valencian Community, governed by the PP (People's Party). This adheres to the principle that territories with less fiscal capacity have the necessary resources to serve their citizens. But not more than, for example, the Mediterranean territories had, which is what is happening now.