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Issue 737
29 NOV - 4 DEC 2013
Important! Due to the Bank holiday the next edition of RTN will be available on Thursday 5th.
‘Padron’ cash crisis by Jack Troughton
Special delivery
Help the RTN Christmas Appeal THIS YEAR RTN has followed the fund-raising adventures of a group of Harley Davidson owners as they raise cash for Emaus children – including a ‘Fun Day’ and the launch of the 2014 Biker Babe Calendar. RTN now needs its big-hearted readers, advertisers and clients to back a Christmas Appeal – and put a smile on the faces of children being cared for at EMAUS homes across the region. To read more, turn to page 7.
TOWN HALLS across Alicante urgently need expat residents to sign the ‘Padron’ – the municipal register – by a 31st December deadline or face losing funding from central government. Local councils receive ‘per capita’ funding based on the numbers of residents registered. However, in many coastal towns some expats have been notoriously shy about signing up. In a double whammy, current funding from Madrid will also be cut unless town halls can prove people who have historically been on the Padron still reside within their boundaries. The number of inhabitants of any municipality not only affects local authority income, it also allows Madrid to estimate the public services any particular local council needs – including health centres, schools, and police. And individual residents also reap benefits from joining the list. It allows them to access things like social services, education, and enjoy certain fiscal rights. RTN visited two coastal resorts with large numbers, Javea and Calpe, to in-
vestigate the size of the problem and discovered both town halls fear a financial black hole running into millions of Euros come the year end. Oscar Anton, Deputy Mayor of Javea and the councillor in charge of town hall coffers, admitted the local authority was “in trouble” over its Padron numbers. PROOF
He said EU residents were supposed to sign a form to say “yes, I’m still here” or have obtained a certificate of their Padron to automatically update the register “do something to prove they are still alive and living here.” Oscar said the Census Office in Madrid threatened to remove 4,000 names of expats from the register. “They will not be counted anymore because in the last four or five years, the people have not done anything to show they are still living here. “We are actively looking for these people because we want to know exactly where they are. If we cannot show they are living here in Javea, the government will take the money away – that would be 600,000€ a year.” Continued on page 3