Government plans to regulate mayors’ wages

PRIME MINISTER Mariano Rajoy has announced that the government intends to regulate the salaries of Spain’s 8,116 mayors and elected councillors.

There is currently no public register which includes the salaries of all local authorities, which are normally set at local plenary meetings. This has led some mayors to complain that Rajoy wants to lessen their autonomy.

According to the Spanish Federation of Towns and Provinces (FEMP), there are 4,883 towns with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants in Spain, and apart from a few, the mayors carry out their work for free.

In 2009, FEMP approved a Code of Good Local Government which included the recommended salaries for mayors, based on the population, budget or financial situation of the town.

Despite this, there are mayors, like Barcelona’s Xavier Trias, who earn more than the Prime Minister himself, with €109,939 per year plus expenses.

The General State Budget sets the Prime Minister’s salary at €78,185 per year.

The mayor of Zaragoza, the former Minister of Justice and Interior under Felipe Gonzalez, Juan Alberto Belloch, and the wife of former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, Ana Botella, who is mayor of Madrid, both earn more than €100,000 per year.

At the other end of the scale are mayors such as Francisco Ordiñana, in L’Enova (Valencia) who is looking for work as a builder after his salary was cut to €1,200 net per month and who is now a part-time mayor.

Meanwhile, the Mayor of Javea, Alicante, Jose Chulvi, is amongst some who have renounced their salaries, in this case €50,000 per year, although he is paid in his position in the provincial government.

The mayor of Durcal, in Granada, Jose Pazos, refused his salary so there would be money to finance a programme to give 20 local unemployed residents a cleaning contract for 15 days which would allow them to take €700 home for Christmas.

In Chozas de Canales (Toledo) the opposition, considering that the mayor, Julian Agudo and deputy mayor, Ana Baltasar, were doing nothing for the town, and denied them their salaries, amounting to €43,000 which is now used for charity and social purposes.