Jimena has 100% of state income retained over debt

Mayor Guillermo Ruiz Ruiz

JIMENA (Press release) The Council has received a communication from the Economy Ministry stating that 100% of all the municipality's income proceeding from its Participation in State Taxes (Participación en los Impuestos del Estado, or PIE) in order to tackle the debt the Council has with the Treasury and Social Security in unpaid bills from municipal employee wages. Mayor Guillermo Ruiz says, "this is a real problem; without income we can't carry out an efficient government service." He added that this is the result of the "catastrophic management carried out by the previous (Socialist) government, which has placed our wellbeing in jeopardy by leaving us without an income. A process has begun to try and find a solution to this very serious problem. "I am very concerned by how quickly the central and regional (Socialist) governments have moved since the Partido Popular took over the Council in Jimena. It had never occurred to them to retain any income from the Council when it was run by the PSOE, but now, when we are no longer of the same political colour and in a grave financial situation, we get hit the hardest." (See also: EXCLUSIVE: Jimena owes Social Security almost €1,2000,000)

Jimena Council approves request for €1.7 million loan

The Extraordinary Plenary Session of Jimena Council held last week (and announced here) approved a financial operation for a €1,700.000 short term loan "to be returned in 12 months," according to a press release. The loan is to be negotiated with three financial entities, says the statement, and "is larger than usual because of the need to pay staff the extra annual bonus (aguinaldo or paga extra, of which there are two per year by law in Spain) and because the Council owes Social Security and Income Tax payments for six months, plus urgent payment to suppliers, all of which "are motivated by the Council's precarious financial situation." Mayor Pascual Collado>