The Partido Popular in Minorca are warning that tourist tax revenue which had been allocated to ten projects on the island will be lost and used instead for economic reconstruction in the Balearics.
The party bases this warning on an article in the decree of measures to combat the impact of the virus which states that there is authorisation for the government "to reallocate resources to promote sustainable tourism to costs and investments deemed necessary to alleviate the effects of the health crisis". Excluded will be projects that are considered to be strategic or for which there are legal commitments and existing spending obligations. The revenue from the tourist tax is to be deposited in a "non-budgetary account" to be used for "general intervention". The same decree also proposes the suspension of the commission that makes decisions on the distribution of funds, of which the president of the Council of Minorca, Susana Mora, is a member.
The investments that would be affected are those since 2016 which haven't yet been undertaken. The PP's Misericordia Sugrañes is calling for the revenue to be invested in Minorca and the plan to relaunch the island's economy. She wants the Council president to convene an urgent meeting of the board of mayors and agree on a common position in demanding that Minorca has the revenue at its disposal.
The decree, say the PP, will mean that projects submitted by town halls and indeed the regional government will be eliminated. Sugrañes believes that if revenue is to go into a general fund, the government should at least make a commitment to investment in Minorca.