Social expenditure, civil servants, taxation: a comparative study commissioned by the Vaudoise Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CVCI) concludes at a drift of the administration of the canton. CVCI director Philippe Miauton details the key points in the morning.
The canton of Vaud is Swiss champion of public spending: here is how to summarize this study 45 pages produced by Swiss Economics on CVCI’s mandate. The objective was to draw the diagnosis of the efficiency of the Vaud administration, by comparing it with the cantons of Bern and Zurich, two cantons populated with urban centers and strong growth, like Vaud.
“This study is not an attack in good standing against the Council of State, it is an observation on figures,” said Philippe Miauton, evoking the will of a “constructive debate”. For the director of the CVCI, economic circles need to know if “this heavy taxation in the canton produces better effects than elsewhere in terms of services or if we can do better and lower this taxation which becomes completely irrespirable”.
Philippe Miauton specifies that this study is not exhaustive, because it looks at the two most expensive services in the Vaudois budget, social assistance and education/training.
Critics
The main black point highlighted by this study concerns social assistance: the beneficiaries of these subsidies affect only 38% of the total envelope in the canton of Vaud, against 62% for Bern, 44% for Zurich. Social spending per capita amount to nearly 3,500 francs per year, while in Berne and Zurich, they reach nearly 2,000 francs.
The CVCI also points to the health insurance subsidies: 36% of Vaudois touch them against a quarter of the Bernese and the Zurich. Philippe Miauton, however, specifies that there is no questioning of the caps of premiums at 10% of household income, because it is a popular decision. “We simply see that the canton of Vaud is the only one to have put this policy in place and that today, from a budgetary point of view, this will soon represent 1 billion out of 11 billion. So we will kindly arrive at 10% of the budget with a single policy,” he explains.
Growth in the canton of Vaud was important, so maybe it was not made in the right places
The CVCI also notes a leap of 11% of the workforce in the public service between 2011 and 2022, which is equivalent to growth three times stronger than in Zurich. For Philippe Miauton, it is “perhaps a question of allocation of this staff. And to say that it is rather in one field that in another that it should be allocated (…) It is a story of distribution. Growth in the canton of Vaud was important, so maybe it was not made in the right places”.
The report also pinpoints the mode of governance, with great centralization. It also shows that tax revenue increases faster in the canton of Vaud: the taxation of natural persons is deemed too aggressive. On the other hand, the CVCI is delighted that VAUD displays costs per student lower than the other cantons in terms of compulsory education.
>> Also listen to the explanations in the morning:
Up to 250 million savings
The CVCI makes a kyrielle of proposals for more efficiency, with an enticing figure: saving up to 250 million francs per year. To do this, the ridge suggests, for example, to limit subsidies by indexing them at the work occupancy rate of the beneficiaries.
This study does not say that it is necessary to cut in the social
Philippe Miauton underlines that the canton of Vaud has “certainly a problem of expenses”, but that the goal is “not to attack the services”. Rather, it is a question of “looking for savings that would either allow money to do something else, or to potentially increase certain benefits, or to reduce state spending in general”. He also wants to reassure: “This study does not say that it is necessary to cut in the social.”
The end of the dynamic compromise?
The policy of the famous Vaud dynamic compromise was carried out “during the majority of the left, in a period when there was no financial concern”, underlines Philippe Miauton. According to him, some policies decided at the time “may not have been reflected on the length, saying that everything was always going to go well.” Today he describes a situation “a little more complicated”.
The CVCI regularly requires tax cuts (see also box). And the promises of the report would have enough to seduce the canton, which is currently seeking to clean up its finances, after a deficit of 370 million francs last year.
Radio subjects: Pietro Bugnon and Thibaut Clémence
Adaptation web: Julie Liardet
