The Grenoble city council adopted late in the night from Monday to Tuesday March 14 a 2023 budget including a controversial increase in the property tax, a "necessary contribution", according to the ecologist mayor Eric Piolle.
This 25% increase in the municipal share, which will be added to a 7% increase in the bases decided nationally, will make it possible to raise approximately 44 million euros.
According to the municipality, half of this sum will be used to "deal with inflation, the cost of energy, or even the increase in the agent's index point", while the other half will be paid into a plan existing investment fund dedicated to transitions, strengthening public service and setting up a "social and climate shield".
"This shield allows us to lower the prices of school canteens, to go faster on the support of mobility - this is crucial with the arrival of the ZFE (low emission zone, editor's note) - but also of the health, popular education and young people, it is a deliberate choice", explained Éric Piolle, questioned Monday by France Bleu Isère.
"I hear the concern of some owners (...) We are aware that it is a contribution that we are asking for", underlined the councilor EELV.
"The property tax is the only lever available to public authorities today to balance" their budget, justified for his part Vincent Fristot, Deputy Finance and Energy Transition. The increase, which will concern 100.000 properties including 85.000 residential and 15.000 business premises, will correspond to "less than half of the abolition of the housing tax", he indicated.
The municipal opposition, which had organized a demonstration on the sidelines of the municipal council, voted against.
The city of Grenoble had not increased its tax rate on built land since 2009, according to the city's website. In 2021, it was 54,72%, the fourth highest in France, according to data from the UNPI property tax observatory.
The city council also validated the sale for 37 million euros of the city's shares in the social landlord Grenoble Habitat (GH) to a subsidiary of the Caisse des dépôts et consignations (CDC).
"This new governance will make it possible to increase the housing production targets in the territory by nearly 35% and to inject an additional 10 million euros into the rehabilitation of existing housing", according to the municipality.
