The City Council obtains the best financial results in its history with a surplus of 30.25 million euros

For the ninth consecutive year, the Consistory has placed all its figures in the green, with budget stability at 14.91 million euros and the cash surplus at 37.82 million euros, the highest since records have been kept.

The Plenary has approved a budget amendment to allocate 9.4 million euros of the surplus to enhance the works and maintenance of the suburbs and neighborhoods, as well as improving the infrastructure of the city and new facilities.

The Estepona City Council reports that the municipal plenary has given account of the liquidation of the 2023 budget that shows historical figures, with a surplus of 30.2 million euros. For the ninth consecutive year, the Consistory has managed to place all economic magnitudes in positive and has taken off economically exceeding all expectations. Budgetary stability has reached 14.9 million euros, and the cash surplus has reached 37.8 million euros, a record amount since records have been kept.

This surplus can now revert to the citizens and will be used to promote the works and maintenance of the suburbs and neighborhoods of Estepona, as well as the improvement and maintenance of the infrastructure of the city with the aim of designing the largest productive investment plan in the history of the municipality.

In this sense, the plenary session held today has approved extraordinary credits and credit supplements totaling 9,430,000 million euros that are incorporated into this year’s budget. This amount comes from the Treasury surplus and will be allocated to a specific action plan.

Thus, credit supplements have been approved which will be destined to a new asphalting plan (2.2 million euros), to the endowment of the Mirador del Carmen Cultural Center (300,000 euros), to the improvement of museums and rehabilitation of heritage (150,000 euros), to the installation of showers on beaches for people with reduced mobility (10.000 euros), studies and technical work (500,000 euros), new investment in goods for general use, such as new surveillance posts on beaches, among other actions (400,000 euros), a comprehensive plan for remodeling and infrastructure, such as a street lighting plan, among other actions (500,000 euros), and the expansion of the Coastal Path (500,000 euros).

As for the extraordinary credits approved are the acquisition of works of art for the city (100,000 euros), the purchase of musical instruments for the new conservatory (100,000 euros), the reform of pavements in sports facilities (250,000 euros), the acquisition and installation of two calisthenics parks (100,000 euros), the rehabilitation of the Local Police gym (120.000 euros), works and urbanization of Conejera square street (175,000 euros), works and landscaping of Doctor Ruiz Mendez avenue (125,000 euros), and provide credit for the file to obtain the necessary land for the construction and implementation of a water desalination plant in Estepona to add water resources to the pooled network and thus help to ward off the phenomenon of a possible drought on the Costa del Sol (2.2 million euros).

This amount coming from the historical Treasury surplus is added to the investment plan launched by the municipal budget for this year, whose total amount is 17.42 million euros and in which the works of the new parking lot that is already being executed in the surroundings of the Church of Carmen and the beginning of the works of the Boulevard in the Central Park stand out.

Another data highlighted by the report of the Intervention that has been reported in the plenary is the outstanding debt of the City Council, which as of December 31 last stood at 28,514,386.58 euros, ie, has already paid 90% of the more than 300 million debt inherited from previous corporations. Thus, the current indebtedness of the municipality is at 24.04%, the lowest for the city in the last 30 years.

The municipal treasury situation is also the best in decades. The balance in bank accounts as of December 31, 2023 is 67,661,741.12 euros. At this point, the mayor of the Economic Area, Ana Vilaseca has stressed that “we must not forget that when the PP acceded to the Mayor’s Office in 2011, the bank balance was not even enough to pay the June payroll and extra summer workers, a situation that contrasts with the current bank liquidity, with more than 67 million euros at the end of the year and after paying the debt inherited in 2009 and to make and pay investments in the municipality by 25.749 million euros executed.

It also highlights the evolution of the average payment period, the latest report of the Municipal Intervention which has been reported to the Plenary puts it at 11.1 days, placing the City of Estepona with one of the best payment periods in Spain.

The city has been improving its best public investment data in the city for several consecutive years. In 2023 the investment chapter almost reached 26 million euros (25.75 million), being Estepona the city of the province of Malaga that, in proportion to its number of inhabitants, invests more in equipment. The following works stand out in millions of euros: the viewpoint, parking lot and El Carmen Cultural Center, with 8 million euros; the new Promenade, with 3.17 million; the construction of a new water tank in the Antonia Guerrero Park, with 2.35 million euros; the Coastal Path, with 2.35 million euros; and the construction of a new water tank in the Antonia Guerrero Park, with 2.35 million euros; the Coastal Path, with 1.62 million; the completion of the new Estepona Town Hall, with 1.2 million; the completion of the asphalting plan in the city with 1.17 million; the continuation of the modernization plan of the city with 1.1 million or the execution of the Rocódromo.