The Mijas Town Hall approved on Friday 17th in an extraordinary plenary session its budget for 2025, which amounts to 133.6 million euros, 3% more than last year. According to Mario Bravo (PP), councillor for Economy and Finance, in his first speech, the accounts proposed by the government team "have not raised taxes, do not generate debt to the Town Hall nor financial burden".

Bravo also explained that this year's municipal budget is somewhat different to that of previous years, "because in this one the expenses are presented in their entirety, as the investments will probably be presented in February or March, in a second plenary session, and for them we will use the remaining treasury, so in today's budget we only include the projects that are already underway or in tender".  

 

In addition to the item dedicated to the Mijas Town Hall staff, the government team has highlighted in its accounts other areas of interest such as Social Inclusion, Senior Citizens and Family and Equal Opportunities, which add up to more than 6.3 million euros. "This last department has already announced that it is going to create a new aid programme for births, with a budget of 100,000 euros", said the councillor for the Economy, adding that “we are also maintaining the 525,000 euros in aid for the disabled, the only municipality in the area to do so, as well as the 200,000 euros in aid for rent”. 

Parks and Gardens has an increased budget of 6 million euros and 4.8 million euros for Cleanliness. Also, just over 5 million euros are earmarked for the extension of the Mijas Coastal Path and the budget for promoting mobility in general has been increased. Regarding this last section, Bravo highlighted that "the budget for Youth has increased to include the university transport grants for the two years we have pending, and this year we are also making a new contribution to the Transport Consortium to keep the bus lines, both in summer for tourists and in winter for workers and students".

 

As for the revenues for 2025, they are also set at 133 million euros, "four million more than last year and are basically the result of the increase in population as well as the increase in economic activity, especially urban development", summarised the councillor for the Economy.

For her part, and in general terms, the mayoress of the city, Ana Mata (PP), said that these are "exciting, accurate, sincere budgets and in line with what Mijas deserves", to which she added that the budget execution "is the highest since 2019". The mayoress of Mijas also thanked "the titanic effort" of all the people involved in the drafting of the accounts. "Last year we managed to provide Mijas with a budget in record time and this year we are once again fulfilling the responsibility of being in charge of the third most important municipality in the province", she concluded. 

 

Voting 

The budget was finally approved with the government team voting in favour and the opposition voting against. This extraordinary plenary session also included two other items for debate and approval. The first one referred to the limit of expenditure for Mijas Town Hall, which for 2025 is set at 119.8 million euros, an amount which, the opposition criticised, differs from the total budget set by the government team, where it is reflected that the expenditure will be 133 million euros. On the other hand, they also voted on the list of the municipal staff planned for this year, with around 900 workers, said the councillor for the economy. Both sections did not have the support of PSOE and Ciudadanos. 

Vox and PMP 

On the other hand, the bench of the government partners, Vox and Por Mi Pueblo, praised the general budget of Mijas for this year. Both parties stressed the importance of the fact that today the document has been taken to plenary for debate, that it has been initially approved and, among other things, that it has not been necessary to resort to raising taxes for its preparation. 

 

"We have designed these accounts to meet the real needs of the people of Mijas without jeopardising our future", said Vox spokesman Juan Carlos Cuevas Dawson, who added that "we have made the best possible budget, a budget that puts people at the centre, that plans with the growth of this municipality in mind. This year 2025, Mijeños will be able to see the results of an efficient management, adapted to the needs of each area, such as Mijas Pueblo, Las Lagunas and La Cala". 

 

For his part, the PMP spokesman, Juan Carlos Maldonado, pointed out that the Mijas budget for 2025 "is much better than two years ago, when there was no budget debate". The councillor also asserted that "I agree, firstly, with Mr. Bravo that the most important thing is that there is a budget, secondly, that taxes have not been raised and, thirdly, that we do not generate debts to leave to future generations or mortgages, as has happened here in previous terms of office". 

Both Vox and the PMP publicly thanked the staff of the municipal delegations and national officials who have been involved in the drafting of the municipal accounts document. 

 

Votes against

The opposition groups, PSOE and Ciudadanos, voted against the budget. The socialists said that these budgets "are worse than those of 2024 and do not excite" the population. The spokesman for the socialists, Roy Pérez, said that these budgets "are illegal, unrealistic and unambitious" and warned the government team that "they could be declared null and void", in addition to advancing that "they will present allegations". 

The main reproach of the socialists to this document focused on the urban planning model, where they have highlighted the increase in income from planning permission, which amounts to 9.6 million, 4.7 million more than in the previous year. "We are denouncing what is happening with you at the head of this town hall, which is this urbanism à la carte, this urban development boom, promoting and favouring a more privileged private sector, while turning your back on the people of Mijas who cannot afford to buy a home in their municipality and have to go outside Mijas to look for more affordable housing".

In response, Bravo said that the current situation "is due to the two hundred and forty licenses that are pending from the year 2022 in the area of La Cala, in the C23 and do you know why they are pending, because the previous government team did a requalification". 

The socialists also criticised the lack of projects, they stressed, that are up to the standards of Mijas, that come to improve the quality of life of the Mijeños. Amongst others, they spoke of the creation of affordable housing, the cuts in funds for Firefighters, Civil Protection, family aid, and education, and the rise in taxes, they claimed, "covertly". 

For his part, Bravo reproached the socialists for not having allocated the money for the Gran Parque to the construction of affordable housing when they were in government.

 

Ciudadanos also turned its back on the 2025 budget. Its spokesman, José Carlos Martín, said that the budgets "do not excite because they do not announce anything". Martín criticised the fact that no investments have been contemplated beyond those already planned by the previous government team, when it was responsible for infrastructures. "You have lowered the investment budget by 57.70%, 10 million euros less, only one work is included, the coastal path, which you already had a year ago", and pointed out that "nothing is known about the completion of the building (multipurpose of the sports city), the construction of new car parks, the fire station, the collectors of the east and west cornice, the splitting of the Camino de Coín or Mijas Pueblo, street remodeling or the hospital". 

Referring to the project to complete the Coastal Path, which has a budget of 5.33 million euros, the councillor for Finance, recalled that it was the PP who initiated its construction and stated that "it seems that the PP has had to come back to finish the other section" and highlighted a series of investments that the government team will implement such as "the car parks projects in Los Santos, opposite the Indira Gandhi school, another one underground in the Barrio Santana, and another one in La Candelaria, and 600,000 euros to finish the Gran Parque".

Martín, on affordable housing, invited the government team to go for the model of the last municipal car parks built, instead of ceding land to a private developer. He also denounced the possible outsourcing of the beach maintenance service, and the fact that the maintenance of electrical infrastructures, among other maintenance services, is not being considered. 

On this last point, Bravo reproached Martín for "not putting out to tender certain service contracts" such as, he said, "the purchase of electrical material or the maintenance of air-conditioning systems".

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