The Junta is presenting it’s 2014 budget, and has slashed real term investment by 13% over 2013 in order to keep basic services running.
The Junta no longer breaks down its annual investment by province as it causes all sorts of uproar, especially in the far flung provinces like Almeria or Jaen, who proportionally receive less cash per head of population than the central provinces of Seville or Cadiz.
But it’s been confirmed that there is no money for the Albox motorway, the Roquetas bypass or to complete the provincial maternity hospital (which is now, what… a decade under construction with no end in sight?)
A chap called José Luis Sánchez Teruel (PSOE) told Cadena Ser Almeria this morning that we “won’t see much money spent on tarmac in the province in 2014”. Ominous words.
There’s a bunch of nebulous stuff about new business creation going on, but again, that’s at a provincial level and nothing exciting has (so far) been unveiled for the poorest province of the poorest region of Spain.
The only thing announced so far is the “Plan OLA”, a plan by the Junta to spend 26.5 million euros doing up schools and colleges. 800 jobs are supposed to be created by this. What, this is the only thing they can think of?
No, they’ve also announced an eight million investment into the forests and natural parks of Almeria province, called the Plan de Empleo Verde, which aims to fix rural roads through beauty spots, forest growth and regeneration after forest fires, which is something good.
And 7,000 pensioners in the province who are on minimum pensions will see an additional 2% topup by the Junta.
That’s… about it, really for next year. Anyone remember the AVE? No? Thought not.