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Alejandro Torres G.
There are two crucial components to budgets: income and expenses. In the first, for both the Assembly and the Council, it is important to make an exhaustive review of the projections that are being presented, because one of the negative effects of the pandemic was the impact on …
ANALYSIS
Keys to keep in mind in the debate
Alejandro Torres G.
Professor in the Department of Economics at Eafit
There are two crucial components to budgets: income and expenses. In the first, for both the Assembly and the Council, it is important to make an exhaustive review of the projections that are being presented, because one of the negative effects of the pandemic was the impact on property taxes, industry and commerce, but also, in transfers from EPM to Medellín and from the FLA to Antioquia. It should be checked that these projections actually correspond to realities and that it is a bankable budget. Regarding expenses, it is clear that the reactivation goes through the infrastructure. In the case of Medellín there is progress with the 80 metro, however, other projects that can leverage the recovery of employment, especially youth and women, must be looked at.
In the case of the department, there are strategic projects such as 4G roads and the development of tertiary roads that provide jobs and can support agricultural productivity. It is time to think in the medium term and design the productive vocations of the region based on the post-pandemic. Medellín has a bet with the Software Valley to materialize that idea in productive projects that link technology as a potentializer of current industries. At the departmental level, the agribusiness should be on the front page. Territorial entities will have to look for mechanisms to finance public spending because there will surely be negative effects on income this year and next year, which creates stress on the coffers, but also because ambitious recovery programs are needed. What needs to be discussed are the levels of indebtedness that administrations can bear so that this does not compromise fiscal sustainability in the medium term.
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