COU, buses, cemetery and budget

This week, the local deliberative council will begin a series of meetings and plenary sessions of committees, in order to analyze the details of the package of files sent by Mayor Julio Alaque to be dealt with before the end of the year. Budget, fiscal taxes, cemetery entity, Code of Urban Planning (COU) and new bus concession are among the most important.

As reported by El Día newspaper, most of the initiatives were presented last week to advisors of the ruling party and the opposition by officials in the executive administration. Now each bloc will analyze the details of each project, formulate proposals and requests for amendments and, ultimately, move forward with opinions to impose sanctions before the end of November.

However, members of the various groups are holding meetings with the president of the body, Marcelo Galland, and with the mayor himself, although their positions have not yet been announced. Regarding the 2026 municipal budget and fiscal tax ordinance, the project was scheduled to be discussed today in the Finance Committee, but council members asked for more time to evaluate the materials and the meeting was postponed.

The Commune’s budget for next year includes total resources of 462,000 million pesos, with the areas comprising the most budget allocations being planning, public works and services, the secretariat and security.

Regarding the fiscal tax law, the municipal administration set an increase in municipal taxes, including the Municipal Urban Services Tax (SUM), paid by front-end owners, by 30 percent.

If a majority opinion is obtained, both ordinances will be sanctioned on Thursday the 27th, with the prior intervention of the Senior Taxpayers’ Association.

Console

The second reform to the Urban Planning Code (COU) sent by the executive to the council will also be taken up in committee this week. The project approves the demarcation of urban, industrial and rural areas.

But it also gives special indicators for each neighborhood, based on its characteristics, regulating housing areas and densities. Most notable is the new regulation of maximum height limits for real estate construction.

On the streets of the center, the maximum limit was set at 10 levels, while permits became more flexible on the roads in some neighborhoods. For example, 60 and 66 near Los Hornos; 38 and 44, at San Carlos and Downtown Tolosa roads, where the permit will go from the current three stories to six stories.

With the presentation made by officials of the Secretariat of Planning, Works and Public Services last week, the detailed analysis will now continue in the Council’s Planning Committee, which is chaired by Peronist Cynthia Mansilla.

Public transportation

The portfolio of projects sent to the council by Mayor Alak also includes the concession document for the city’s new public transportation system. The initiative provides for extending roads in the neighborhoods where the eastern, western, northern and southern municipal lines run. But, in addition, he proposed to the province a new subsidy system, which today represents 60 percent of the trip value, to complement the routes with regional lines.

Municipal officials stated that this idea would make it possible to provide sustainability for the possibility of adding 10 kilometers of track extension throughout the game. One tool is to create a transportation corridor to combine the use of municipal and regional lines.

In any case, I point out that the ultimate implementation of this system, in addition to being gradual, will depend on its performance. The draft document proposes that these amendments be made by decision of the executive authority, an aspect of the file that some members of the Council noted, but without taking hasty positions.

If the document is approved on November 27, as is the goal of the ruling party, the municipality will invite public bidding for companies seeking to take charge of the system for the next ten years. The process will end in February, when the new public transport plan can officially come into effect, with gradual changes set to take place.

Cemetery

A plenary session of the Legislative and Finance Committees is scheduled to be held next Wednesday to begin the committee’s consideration of the draft Alak decree regarding the establishment of an independent body to manage the cemetery. Campo Santo is currently dependent on the Municipal Secretariat and what this change seeks is to provide it with operational independence and its own budget, where the municipal tourism entity (Ematur) and the regional market already operate.

The idea is to be able to restore the heritage value of the cemetery, and redraw the management plan of the niches and vaults, without ruling out the future installation of its own crematorium.

This issue was put on the agenda shortly after the mayor’s inauguration, when it was reported that the skeletal remains of more than 12 thousand people had been discovered, which were stored in the sediments of the unburied cemetery. After that incident, it was planned to build a new ossuary, which went into effect last summer.

Video surveillance

In addition, the CEO sent the Council to consider the new public video surveillance system, which consists of approving the offer submitted by Danaide SA in the public tender to contract a comprehensive surveillance service by collecting video images and analyzing different points of the city, 24 hours a day, for a period of 36 months.

The offer plans to provide, install, maintain and monitor about 1,200 new cameras that will be installed in various neighborhoods, in addition to providing technical support for 920 other cameras that have already been installed and monitored.

But, in addition, the file includes the installation of a patent monitoring ring for cars entering and leaving the city, to be installed at specific points of entrances.

The amount requested by the company to provide the total service is 10,780 million pesos per month.

The committee will also begin evaluating this project this week, and the idea of ​​tackling it on campus will be presented before the end of November.

The Alak government’s goal is to be able to settle this package of discussions before the legislative change scheduled for December 10, when the ruling party will have a majority of lawmakers, despite not having a quorum.

The blocs that currently make up the body will participate in this discussion: Union por la Patria (UP), PRO-JxC; UCR. PRO-Vecinal, La Libertad Avanza (LLA) and the ASAP “new generation” monoblock.