The Balearic government is due to approve the 2020 budget on Thursday. It will be marked, says finance minister Rosario Sánchez, by a continuation of policy in respect of taxation.
She explained to parliament on Tuesday that this policy is not and has not been about raising taxes. One tax will be increased, she explained, and this is what banks pay when finalising mortgage agreements. It will go up from 1.2% to 1.5%, which is the rate in ten other Spanish regions. In terms of revenue, she forecasts that the government will benefit from an additional 23 million euros.
Potentially, however, there are new taxes on the horizon. These are the green taxes that were envisaged under the agreements for government between PSOE, Més and Podemos in June. While these taxes won't be introduced in 2020, they are expected to come in at some point during the period of the current administration.
Sánchez insisted that the government is acting in a "responsible and reasonable" way in adapting to a changing tax revenue environment. In other words, there is less revenue from certain sources, in particular property sales tax. Despite a lowering in revenue - estimated to be 50 million euros lower in 2020 - the government will continue to maintain "the levels of fundamental public services", e.g. education, health and social services.
The total budget in 2020 will be close to 6,000 million euros, of which 4,400 million will be government spending; the rest relates to government debt.