The economic hole in the municipal coffers due to the health crisis caused by Covid-19 continues to increase. The delegation of the Treasury and Public Administration has approved in the Local Government Board a new extraordinary contribution to Tussam to compensate for the losses caused by the fall of travelers during the pandemic. In total, current transfers will increase by 11 million, an estimated amount to balance the accounts of the public company. Juan Espadas has had to inject 31 million so far to save the company from bankruptcy.
Although the numbers of users are increasing in the last quarter of the year once the restrictions were eased and activity was gradually resumed, at the end of October the global calculation is of a reduction of 39% of trips compared to 2019. To make this new contribution to Tussam, the City Council will first use savings generated during the year 2021 in the personnel chapter for vacant positions, conditioned, to a large extent, by the zero replacement rate. In total, 5.5 million of this extraordinary contribution will be financed through this channel.
Secondly, due to the suspension in 2021 of the Spring Festival, savings have been generated in the Major Festival area for an amount of 1.2 million that will be used for public transport. The third way to increase current transfers to the municipal transport company is a readjustment of the contributions made by the City Council for each of the subsidized titles. In this way, 4.3 million will be reused. To do this, a review of the number of trips made this year in each of the subsidized titles has been made and it has been concluded that 3.7 million assigned to the card for the elderly can be reconverted into transfers to the company; 281,000 euros from the youth card; 250,000 euros from the school card; 50,000 euros from the school card and 14,000 euros from the social card.
On the occasion of this same review of the subsidized titles, a significant increase in the users of the functional diversity card has been verified, which already has 2,349 beneficiaries, which represents a growth of 52% in the last two years. For this reason, it has been agreed to increase the amount assigned to this title by 70,000 euros to reach a total of 320,000 euros.
In 2020, the City Council already made extraordinary transfers to Tussam of almost 20 million to compensate for the losses caused by the pandemic. These transfers, later, were offset by the extraordinary contribution of the central government of 18.2 million through the state fund created to support public urban transport companies.
The Socialists consider that “with this agreement we reinforce the city government’s commitment to public transport. We have made a new effort to compensate Tussam for the losses caused by the fall of travelers, just as we did in 2020. At the same time, the company is working to recover the number of users and the result is the most positive data of this last quarter of the year.
Tussam has not been the only company to which the municipal government has had to put money. Last summer 1.7 million were injected to help Contursa due to the lack of congresses. The data from January 1 to June 31 was quite bad due to the lack of congresses organized in the Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones de Sevilla Este. The pandemic continues to rage. This forced the budget management service to inject that amount into Contursa’s coffers to guarantee the maintenance of the city’s promotion strategy. The expected revenues over those budgeted in the first half have been reduced by 63.1% due to the evolution of the crisis.
‘To love is not to tie’, a slogan that will be on 15 buses
The area of ​​Equality, Education, Citizen Participation and District Coordination, with the collaboration of different areas and municipal companies, yesterday presented the campaign for the International Day Against Violence Against Women, which is commemorated on November 25 and which this year Its motto is to love is not to tie up, which, like the graphic image that accompanies it, have been created by students from Sevillian institutes. It will be visible on 15 buses and 25 marquees throughout Tussam, as well as on social media.
The graphic creation of the campaign has been by the students of the International Baccalaureate of the IES Martinez Montanes, while the 4th year of Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) of the Instituto de Ensenanza Secundaria (IES) Isbilya has created the motto that accompanies the image. Both centers have been the winners of the contest organized by the Area of ​​Equality for the creation of this campaign and in which 23 institutes have participated with 161 proposals in total. The bell will be inserted in 40 patrol cars of the Local Police and in 110 taxis. From the districts of the city, the graphic image will be made visible in their respective headquarters.
It will also be broadcast, from November 22 to 28, in three marquees belonging to Tourism, located in Plaza del Salvador, La Encarnacion and Plaza Nueva. Likewise, it will be disseminated in a complete circuit of 50 marquees managed by the Urban Planning Department and in ten marquees at the main train and bus stations (Santa Justa, Plaza de Armas and San Bernardo) and at the San Pablo Airport. On the other hand, a series of routes are also carried out through different areas of the city, in which the campaign will be publicized by tandem bike, distributing 15,000 brochures.
