What's happening at the local level? Financial strangulation, bureaucracy, and demographic pressure.

Barcelona"Local governments need support." The Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, made these remarks in Parliament during the debate to approve an extraordinary fund which, added to the local cooperation fund, brings the total amount the Generalitat (Catalan government) has injected into local entities this year to 170 million euros. This money should allow them to pay bills at a time when utility prices are rising and interest payments to banks continue to increase. The need to resort to these kinds of mechanisms to guarantee essential services in municipalities highlights one of the major problems facing local governments: the lack of a stable, predictable, and sufficient funding framework to cover the costs of the services they provide.

"It's not a new problem, and one we know perfectly well," Xavier Amor, Secretary of Local Governments and mayor of Pineda for 17 years, told ARA. That is why the Catalan government has begun the process of approving a new local financing law, developed through dialogue with municipal organizations as well as the opposition. It aims to have it finalized by June and, until then, is highlighting the investment it is making to support local councils. For example, with the PUOSC, which has doubled its budget to 500 million until 2029, or the 200 million annually of the neighborhood plan to regenerate areas Degraded.

However, all of this is just a "band-aid" solution that doesn't allow for investment planning and, in the fine print, doesn't reach municipalities as quickly as advertised, laments Meritxell Budó, president of the Catalan Association of Municipalities. Budó, a former Minister of the Presidency, argues that the new law should serve to "clean up" the resources available to local governments, despite the constraint of having to adapt to the Spanish legal framework. For his part, David Bote, president of the Catalan Federation of Municipalities, emphasizes the need to guarantee that every responsibility transferred to municipalities—from daycare centers to childcare—is properly funded. One of the problems local councils face is their limited room for maneuver in securing additional resources beyond taxes like property tax (IBI) or waste collection fees. The situation is even worse for small municipalities, which are demanding the implementation of the Rural Municipality Statute with specific funding. Joan Solà, president of the Association of Micro-villages of Catalonia, argues that as long as they continue to be subjected to the same bureaucracy as larger municipalities, the problems will persist. "We represent 51 percent of the territory and have 2.4 percent of the population," he explains. For Solà, ensuring that living in these municipalities is viable is also ensuring the sustainability of the country's model. The Catalan Government maintains that it is aware of the specific circumstances of these municipalities and has committed to addressing their requests. Secretaries and auditors

In addition to the scarcity of resources, there is often a lack of personnel within local administrations. Municipal and regional government sources admit that Catalonia has an "endemic" problem of a shortage of secretaries and auditors, key figures for certifying procedures and expenditures, from payroll payments to the documentation required to obtain subsidies. The Catalan government estimates a shortage of around 900 and is finalizing, together with the Spanish government, the transfer of responsibility for filling these positions—a responsibility that falls to the central government—to Catalonia. Meanwhile, many mayors are overwhelmed by the paperwork and unable to cope. Some have even decided against applying for grants due to a lack of staff to manage them. This is the case of the mayor of Castellserà, Marcel Pujol, who recently had to request time off work to personally handle the paperwork for a grant: if he doesn't justify it in time, the town hall will lose 600,000 euros. On September 15th, he was left without a secretary, and although he received occasional assistance from staff sent by the county council, he laments the problems caused by the high turnover of secretaries and auditors. "You handle the day-to-day tasks, but you can't prepare anything. And many colleagues are in the same situation," he explains. This turnover is exacerbated when town halls compete with each other to attract secretaries and auditors. Their annual salaries can exceed 100,000 euros, and it's not surprising that in medium-sized cities they reach 85,000. Smaller municipalities receive support from the county councils, which send staff on specific days. "I'm practically acting as the auditor myself," says Rosa Pujol, the mayor of Aitona, who in two years has seen five different auditors come and go in her municipality (and only one morning a week). For Pujol, the most immediate solution to this problem is to reduce the bureaucratic burden placed on them. But even when the position of auditor exists—whether permanent, temporary, or interim—dysfunctions can still occur. This is the case brought to light by Marc Solsona, the mayor of Mollerussa, who has an open conflict with the municipal auditor because she has refused to sign essential documents for the town hall's daily operations for months. This has brought the City Council to the brink of collapse.

The municipal register

However, the crises facing local governments are not limited to funding or staffing shortages. According to the sources consulted, another issue having a significant impact on municipal management is the demographic shift in Catalonia. One of these is the aging population, which necessitates rethinking services for the elderly and the sustainability of the healthcare system, as well as addressing housing access problems in cities where it has traditionally been scarce. Furthermore, there is the issue of security: municipal sources in the metropolitan area admit to "concern" that, due to increased police presence in Barcelona, ​​crime is spreading to the first and second metropolitan rings. And many small municipalities, Solà adds, face the problem of lacking their own local police force.

The arrival of newcomers to Catalan neighborhoods and towns has also led some mayors to speak out against cases of alleged census fraud—when a person tells the City Hall that they live in a place where they don't actually reside in order to access public services. "It exists and must be addressed with more inspections and resources," argues Budó, while Bote rejects framing it as a top priority for local government. In any case, the mayors from Junts have presented a united front on this issueThe mayor of Sant Cugat, Josep Maria Vallès, has been one of the most vocal critics of the existence of "mafias" profiting from voter registration. This has drawn criticism from anti-racist groups who believe that if these networks exist, it is because mayors like him have tightened the requirements for immigrants to register their address.