The governor of La Pampa, Sergio Ziliotto (Union for the Homeland)called this week to discuss a new fiscal pact with his peers from other jurisdictions and the Government “so that the Nation delegates the provision of services to provinces and municipalities.”
After the truncated negotiations by the Budget 2025 and after signing the Pampean adhesion to the Extinction of Reciprocal Obligations Regime, The Peronist president drew up a balance sheet for 2024, with special emphasis on the economic link between the Casa Rosada and the districts.
Sergio Ziliotto proposes a new federal fiscal pact
In this regard, Ziliotto maintained that ““We must discuss a new federal fiscal pact, where the provinces and municipalities take charge of the provision of all public services.”
In this sense, he said that “it also has to do with being more efficient in expenses, because decisions would be made in the territory.” However, he conditioned the measure on the Nation transferring the resources. “The provinces agree and we have the management capacity to do so,” He said in dialogue with Pampeana Public Television.
As he told Scope, one of the main concerns of the provinces It is currently the state of national routes. Regarding this aspect, the president said that it is “an issue that is already worrying today and that is going to get even worse is the state of national routes.”
“Anyone who travels through Argentina already notices that they cannot even stop on the shoulder, because the grass is no longer cut,” he said. And he expanded: “That resource is there, because when each of us goes to the service station and pays for fuel, we are paying a percentage that has a specific impact on the Transportation Infrastructure Fund, which is what finances National Highways.”
Immediately afterwards, the governor of La Pampa criticized the Casa Rosada for not wanting to discuss the Budget and assured that, for that reason, “We cannot claim that we are a country.”
“The budget for the districts is federal tax sharing. Which is automatic. But there is no public works, there are no resources for health or education. That is why we say that the provinces are supporting the original responsibility of the State, which It is health, justice, security, education, employment, food, public works…”, he added.
Claims to the Nation
In this vein, he denounced that everything is on the backs of the provincial governments, while stating that “this year was a huge setback in federalism in fiscal matters.”
“With the fiscal package that Congress approved, the provinces have lost resources. This was said by the Budget Office of the National Congress. There it was clearly marked what the provinces were going to lose: 0.56% of GDP. And starting in 2028, a loss of 0.25 is consolidated. For La Pampa it has a negative impact of 15 million dollars, that is, 15 billion pesos,” he concluded.
The Peronist leader also spoke about La Pampa’s accession to the Regime of Extinction of Reciprocal Obligations with the Nation and highlighted that they achieved a space to discuss the tangible, the resources that belong to the province.
“We have signed an agreement and we have 60 days to demonstrate all the debts that we claim from the Nation. The first step is to consolidate an amount, which will give us recognition that the national State owes La Pampa. Then we will see how we achieve the cancellation of that debt. But it will be an important step to defend our rights in the area of the Judiciary,” he said.
Finally, he estimated that the pension debt that the Nation maintains with Lto Pampa is $3,000 million at 2021 values.
“Coincidentally, that update was in the 2023 budget, which was extended, but that part was repealed, an issue that we observed before the Court, because a national government can redirect a budget but cannot repeal it. That is, it took powers from Congress national“, concluded Sergio Ziliotto.
Source: Ambito
