FINANCE & INFRASTRUCTURE

WHAT ABOUT WEZEMBEEK-OPPEM?

Are our taxes well spent according to our expectations?

THE FACTS

Our municipality is in excellent financial health. There are no debts and we achieve budgetary surpluses. That is, annual revenues exceed annual expenses (see chart below).

self-financing marginA graph with a line Description automatically generated

This is a luxury that many municipalities can only dream of.

Sufficient space therefore, to improve our infrastructures in a meaningful way.

On the other hand, the latest municipality-city monitor shows that it is  getting harder for Wezembeek residents to live comfortably. The subjective poverty indicator has declined by 10% between 2020 and 2023, from 46% to 56%.

The municipality has always prided itself on good financial management and, unlike some neighboring municipalities, was able to keep its results positive. However, did you know that at one point during this legislature the municipality had approximately EUR 33 million in cash. 

A few years ago, inflation (of more than 10%) caused the municipality to lose purchasing power. We are talking about a loss of financial purchasing power between EUR 5 and 10 million. We cannot call this a correct financial policy.

More than half of us all indicate that they can no longer live comfortably in Wezembeek-Oppem.

How can this still be reconciled?

WHAT DOES WOPLUS STAND FOR?

At the last municipal council in September, the megalomaniac sports infrastructure project on Sports Square Street was voted down with the support of WOplus. This project was budgeted around €5,000,000.

We will give you this money back in 2025 in the form of a premium of € 900 per family. All families! We want to do everything so we can push back the subjective poverty indicator in the right direction.

Without affecting the healthy financial situation of the municipality. And without other projects being compromised:

  • The football club will gets its new field and its new canteen;
  • The reconstruction of a number of streets will be done thoroughly;
  • The municipal services will have a new hangar.

Let’s strive together for meaningful projects for Wezembeek-Oppem. And with a warm heart for all residents!

The municipality ‘spilts’ the residents’ money when it simply awards sponsorship to unknown organizations or unverified applications for projects in the Third world.

It’s good that people are socially moved by social projects in the third and fourth world. It is less good that this sponsorship is awarded without any form of control. After the comments from WOplus in the opposition, Council has become more cautious and this sponsorship will be better monitored from now on. Malafide requests will thus be better discouraged from now on.

However, there is still no coherence between the various actions that seem to come from a wish list of various aldermen. There is often concern about where that action belongs in the policy vision. The actions are often not subject to a financial analysis or are not very transparent.

We certainly want to contribute to socially acceptable projects, but with a clear underlying vision on how to distribute this budget and sufficient control over how the money is spent.

Let’s strive together for meaningful projects for Wezembeek-Oppem. And with a warm heart for all residents! 

Vote for WOplus and therefore vote for a coherent policy where we pay attention to our own residents and the people who are having a more difficult time.