The budget of the City of Geneva is under wraps. After 18 hours of debate beginning on Saturday, the Municipal Council adopted a deficit budget of 69.9 million francs on Monday evening by reintroducing salary mechanisms.
The freezing of these mechanisms aroused the anger of City employees and led to a strike last Thursday. This criticized measure was, however, buried Monday evening and the budget was voted on by a majority of the legislature, made up of the socialists, the Greens, the Ensemble à gauche-Popular Union group and the MCG.
“On the proposal of the Administrative Council, all salary mechanisms were reintroduced, for an amount of 5.9 million and the indexation was reevaluated at 0.1%,” announced the City of Geneva in a press release. It specifies that the seniority bonus can be converted into days of leave, on a voluntary basis, generating an estimated saving of 1.2 million.
Avoid the worst
An additional saving of 3.6 million was found via a revaluation of depreciation and damage insurance premiums linked to buildings, as well as a reduction in administrative operating costs.
“The adjustments made by the Administrative Council and the Municipal Council made it possible to find a majority to vote on the budget,” notes Alfonso Gomez, the mayor of Geneva, in charge of finances.
Quoted in a press release, he adds that “the challenge consisted of avoiding at all costs subjecting the city to the system of provisional twelfths. This situation would have significantly worsened the deficit, making it even more difficult to return to balance by 2033.”
Several versions
The Administrative Council of the city of Geneva proposed a first draft budget on September 24, which forecast a deficit of 62.1 million. In mid-October, however, the right and center parties refused to enter into the matter and forced the executive to present a new budget.
A second project was unveiled on November 12 with a deficit of 69.3 million, including the suspension of salary mechanisms. With the adjustments found and voted on Monday evening, the 2026 budget ultimately presents a deficit of 69.9 million for expenses of 1.4 billion.
