Ciudadanos (C's) are accusing the Balearic government of acting with "opacity" when it comes to investments being made from tourist tax revenue. The party is insisting that there is full disclosure of the revenue management on a website.
Olga Ballester, one of the party's two members of the Balearic parliament, says that there is a lack of transparency regarding the status of projects being carried out or to be undertaken with the tax revenue. Her colleague, the C's chief spokesperson Xavier Pericay, intends quizzing the tourism minister Bel Busquets in parliament today.
Pericay notes that there is a total of 100 million euros from the tax. It is "unknown" how it is being invested. "It is unacceptable that the public don't know about projects approved by the cabinet over the past two years. They don't know if the projects have even been awarded or what is happening with those budgeted items that have not been executed from one year to the next."
The C's aren't alone in putting pressure on the government to explain tourist tax revenue spending. The Partido Popular is demanding an appearance by Bel Busquets to respond to its claim that the government has chosen to double the tax - an ideological and anti-tourist decision - when it is not executing projects that the tax is supposed to finance.
* On the government's website - caib.es* - there is a list of projects to be financed with tax raised in 2017. Some of these projects, e.g. the acquisition of the Es Canons finca in Arta (a cost of 4.75 million euros), have been given a good deal of publicity, but what the C's are saying is that while the projects are itemised, there isn't supporting information related to their status.
The management of tourist tax revenue projects is now meant to be the responsibility of the Balearic Tourism Agency.
*Approved Projects Financed By The Fund To Encourage 2017 Sustainable Tourism