CAMPO - La Línea to approve record €73 million budget for 2027

La Línea city council is set to approve a record €73 million budget for expenditure in 2027 this week, with a projected surplus of €350,000. 

The net budget stands at €62 million, which does not include €11 million of funding allocated to domiciliary care and assistance paid directly to the council by the Junta de Andalucía. 

Mayor Juan Franco said the budget included an anticipated wage increase of around 5% for public employees alongside a significant investment in the improvement of public services, including new contracts covering urban maintenance and cleaning, road markings and signage, other public services and measures to control legionella. 

Mr Franco also expects tender processes to be launched in 2027 with a view to improve the maintenance of the municipal parks and gardens, acknowledging that the current provision is insufficient. 

He described the budget as an important step, referring to how the municipality remains subject to a financial restructuring plan overseen by the Spanish government because of historically high public debt. 

However, the government has already classified La Línea among the Spanish municipalities considered to be at ‘low financial risk’, following the council’s efforts to reduce its debt burden which have resulted in paying back a third of the more than €170 million in liabilities accounted in 2015. 

“This is an important budget which consolidates the municipality’s recovery, both economic and financially,” Mr Franco said. 

Mr Franco acknowledged that the council continued to face financial constraints but said progress was being made towards economic stability. 

“We continue very constrained but, step by step, we are reaching an economic normality which is allowing us to face [these circumstances] with sustained improvement in public services which, I expect, will be consolidated in 2027,” he concluded.