The City Council achieves ‘zero debt’ after paying 300 million euros and makes the largest tax cut in Estepona’s history

An average reduction of 20% will be applied to this year’s real estate tax bill.

The mayor has pointed out that this is “a milestone for the city”, achieved “in record time” thanks to an economic management marked by “responsibility, efficiency and good use of public resources”.

García Urbano has advanced that opens a new stage in economic management where they will be able to allocate “significant efforts” that so far have been used to repay debt (an average of 60,000 euros per day) to more public investment, to strengthen services and increase aid to families and the productive fabric.

The mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano, has announced the achievement of “a milestone for the city” after paying all of the more than 300 million euros of debt that the City Council of Estepona accumulated until 2011. With the achievement of this ‘zero debt’, has advanced that will be carried out “the largest tax cut in the history of the city”, which will materialize already in the receipt of the Real Estate Tax (IBI) this year 2025, with an average reduction of 20%. In this way, the IBI will reach in the city an accumulated drop since 2011 that reaches 50% thanks to the measures carried out in these years. In addition, the alderman has advanced that the City Council will continue to study new reductions in the tax burden for the coming years if the economic situation of the municipal coffers allows it.

García Urbano explained that during this year have been paid more than 26 million euros to meet the commitment to achieve full repayment of the financial debt of the City of Estepona, a fact that has been certified by the municipal intervention.

The first mayor has pointed out that “with a municipal management marked by responsibility, efficiency, austerity and good use of public resources” has been executed in record time the repayment of the huge debt that previous governments generated with public administrations, agencies, companies, suppliers and financial institutions”, which has also allowed to save significant amounts in the economic interests that it generated. “Today we leave behind one of the most fateful chapters in the history of Estepona and move forward with more strength towards an excellent city,” he said.

In this regard, he recalled that the City Council of Estepona was at the head of the most indebted municipalities in Spain, with a debt of 4,600 euros per inhabitant, while has valued “the great budgetary effort” that has been made to end this financial ballast of the past. Specifically, since 2011 an average of 60,000 euros per day has been allocated to the payment of this debt. “How much more could have been done during this period if those amounts had been directed to equipment, services and aid to families. For example, 16 hospitals, 2,550 remodeled streets, 2,100 subsidized housing units, 25 subway parking lots such as the one in the Plaza del Ajedrez or 182 kilometers of coastal corridor”, he added.

He also stressed that in recent years has managed to clean up the municipal accounts and turn the City Council of Estepona in a serious and exemplary administration, which has not generated debt, as they are paid all the facilities and projects carried out within the great transformation and modernization carried out in the city.

In relation to the payment of the inherited debt it is necessary to emphasize: the elimination of all unaccounted invoices, the so-called ‘invoices in the drawers’ (33 million euros); the payment of the entire inherited debt with the Junta de Andalucía for the improper or unjustified use of subsidies granted to the previous socialist government (6 million euros); the payment of the debt with the General Treasury of the Social Security (60 million euros) and with the Tax Agency (18 million euros); as well as the payment of more than 90 million euros of the Payment Plan to Suppliers, among other concepts.

On the other hand, the Mayor explained that savings and responsibility in spending have been decisive in the economic management necessary for the amortization of this debt, with a multitude of measures that have contributed to the elimination of superfluous spending or the waste of public resources. He has also stressed the relevance of the elimination in 2011 of municipal companies, which had become “instruments to circumvent transparency, control and administrative law governing the functioning of local government, being uncontrolled spending tools of predecessor governments”. In this regard, he has indicated that, in these 14 years, “all economic and municipal management is audited and controlled with the guarantees of the bodies of Intervention, Treasury and Secretariat.

Parallel to all this, the City Council has been developing important projects and initiatives that have transformed the city with a management model focused on quality of life, modernity, the maintenance of traditions, the promotion of culture and sport.

Thus, initiatives such as the Downtown Beautification Plan ‘Garden of the Costa del Sol’, which has allowed urban regeneration and beautification of more than 130 streets and squares; the Coastal Corridor, already executed to 95% and that will allow through a pedestrian path along the entire coastline of the municipality; the construction of the Trade Fair, Sports and Leisure Park; the Athletics Stadium; the Felipe VI Theater Auditorium; the Orchid Park, an international benchmark; or the Mirador del Carmen Cultural Center, with exhibition halls, a conservatory, an auditorium and the eight-story Library of Contemporary Cultures.

Also noteworthy is the construction of the new pedestrian boulevard in which the old N-340 road has been transformed, creating one of the largest promenades in the country, the remodeling of Calle Terraza and the Municipal Parking Plan, which now has 2,000 parking spaces at a price of 1 euro during the day and 3 euros 24 hours a day. To the four current enclosures will be added those under construction in the surroundings of the Church of Carmen, and the Boulevard Central Park, in addition to the projected in the area of La Lobilla. Likewise, procedures have been initiated for the rescue of the La Viña parking lot, until now in private hands due to a municipal concession granted by previous governments, and its inclusion in the municipal network.

The City Council also took an important step by assuming the construction of the High Resolution Hospital, with an investment of 15 million euros, and its subsequent transfer to the Junta de Andalucía for its equipment and commissioning.

García Urbano has advanced that “now opens a new and important stage in the economic management of the city”, where they will be able to allocate these important economic amounts that until now were used to repay debt to more public investment, to strengthen municipal services and increase aid to families and local productive fabric.

Thus, the City Council has approved in plenary to allocate 8.3 million euros to new projects, improvements in the city and more cultural and sports activities. Specifically, it has been approved to incorporate to this year’s budget 7.7 million euros from the surplus achieved in 2024 for new investments such as a comprehensive plan of remodeling and infrastructure that will allow to meet throughout the year the needs of improvement works that may arise in public infrastructure throughout the municipality. In addition, several major actions have been planned in neighborhoods and long-awaited projects such as the construction of a velodrome or the beginning of the procedures for the new Guadalmina river path. In addition, the allocation for cultural and sports activities and the Mirador del Carmen Cultural Center is increased with another 650,000 euros.

The conservation and rehabilitation of municipal buildings and a new asphalting plan are other actions to which new funds will be allocated.

In relation to economic management, it should be recalled that the liquidation of the 2024 municipal budget has yielded historic figures, with all economic magnitudes in positive, with a surplus of more than 45 million euros and a budget stability of 24 million euros, a record figure since records have been kept. Likewise, the average period of payment to suppliers has been 12 days, placing Estepona City Council at the head of the administrations with prompt payment and leaving behind the delays of 1,492 days that dragged previous governments.