The new mobility payment divides the regions and “this more tax” annoys the bosses

Modern, efficient and inexpensive public transport. However, While attendance explodes, all users dream of it. Similarly, But investing in mobility costs communities whose finances are already bled. Meanwhile, In April. Nevertheless. For example, a study by the local France agency and the National Institute of Territorial Studies underlined that the transport decarbonation put local authorities in the face of “a wall of expenses”. In addition, And the current financing model does not allow them to be covered. For example, In France, this model is based on the participation of public authorities and communities, users but also companies.

Public as private, all employers must indeed pay the mobility payment, formerly transport payment. Therefore, First applied in the Paris region. Furthermore. Nevertheless, this employers’ contribution has since been extended to metropolises and then to all cities or intercommunalities of more new mobility payment divides regions new than 10,000 inhabitants, each being free to fix the new mobility payment divides regions rate. For example, Since its promulgation in February. In addition, the 2025 finance law now allows all regions to tax companies with more than eleven employees up to 0.15 % of their payroll to donate it to the organizing mobility authorities.

“Yet umpteenth fiscal baton” – New mobility payment divides regions – New mobility payment divides regions new

A new tax in short which “reestablished a fair balance between. In addition, the regions which were investing without own tax revenue. Nevertheless. the inter-municipalities which already benefited from the mobility payment” and “provides the regions with a new possibility of financing, already existing for Ile-de-France”, according to Carole Delga, president of the association of elected regions of France, which brought the idea of ​​this “regional and rural mobility payment”.

But among the regional presidents, this tax divides and rekindled the right-left divide. Therefore, Xavier Bertrand. Furthermore. president new mobility payment divides regions new LR of Hauts-de-France, had been the first to draw by indicating that he would not apply this new tax which could have new mobility payment divides regions brought 70 to 80 million euros to his region. “I am not here to make the pockets of companies. to put their heads underwater because the state is already doing it well enough,” he considers. Same story with her colleague Christelle Morançais (Pays-de-la-Loire) who also refuses this windfall. “Yet another fiscal baton against our businesses, against employment, against competitiveness,” she said.

Some regions will apply it. others not – New mobility payment divides regions – New mobility payment divides regions new

If Hervé Morin. Fabrice Pannetkoucke, presidents of the Normandy and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions, also said no, Renaud Muselier, Paca Renaissance president, has decided to apply it in his region, causing the anger of local economic actors. Because. without too much surprise. this new tax goes wrong with the MEDEF which recalls that new mobility payment divides regions new “private employers have already paid in 2023 more than 9.3 billion euros in mobility payment”. And to add that “the development of public transport should not be done at the expense of new mobility. payment divides regions the competitiveness. of our businesses”.

Even in some regions led by the left. everyone does not jump for joy from the idea of ​​still taking businesses. As in Brittany where the establishment of the mobility payment was adopted Wednesday evening at the Regional Council. Even if this new tax will bring him 40 million euros. President Loïg Chesnais-Girard judges this new “imperfect” tax tool. pleads for “a global overhaul of mobility financing in France”.

Companies believe they are already contributing enough

With among the new sources of financing possible “an additional tourist tax”. “a taxation on revenue from the European carbon market”. But “without further choice for the moment”. the president of the Brittany region will new mobility payment divides regions new therefore apply this tax from January 1, 2026 with a rate of 0.15 % for companies located in the most richly endowed areas and 0.08 % for the others.

This makes Hervé Kermarrec. president of Medef Brittany, who protested, like almost all Breton employers’ organizations, against “this more tax”. “We already participate up to 50 to 70 % of the public transportation budgets of inter-municipal authorities while only. 4 % of the journeys carried out in public transport are home-work-Domicile journeys. Additionally, ” he explains. And we are asked to contribute even more when the economic situation is tense. It is completely absurd. unfair. especially since it will create a distortion of competition between our Breton companies and those of the neighboring regions where this levy will not be applied. »»

“To also be interested in what the user pays”

At the head of the consulting cabinet the mobility explorerJulien de Labaca is not new mobility payment divides regions surprised by the epidermal reactions that arouses this new. mobility payment in the region. “It has always been a subject of discord. some companies that are not. little served by transport refusing to pay as much as those located in dense areas,” said the expert. But according to him, there is not the subject as to the thorny question of the financing of public transport.

“In this equation, the mobility payment is one of the variables but not the only one,” he believes. There is also the participation of communities but also that of users. And it is on this third lever that we could move forward in a more intelligent way. But in France. we have always refused to put the nose in what the user pays while certain examples abroad show that we can trigger a virtuous circle with new mobility payment divides regions new more revenue. therefore more investments. »»