Por Redaccion 
The four communities aggrieved by the Autonomous Financing System (SFA), Andalucía, Comunidad Valenciana, Murcia, and Castilla-La Mancha, have demanded urgent and prioritized reform of the current model «to have a fairer and more equal one, that doesn’t clip our wings and ensures that every citizen, no matter where they live, receives the same resources from the State,» as claimed by the Minister of Economy, Finance, and European Funds, Carolina España, who has revealed that, from 2009 until now, Andalucía should have received 13,411 million euros more.
During the inauguration of the ‘Autonomous Financing and Underfunded Communities: main problems and reform proposals’ conference, organized by the Andalucía Regional Government in collaboration with the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie) and with the support of the Valencian Community, the Government of the Murcia Region, and Castilla-La Mancha, the minister has emphasized that the latest report from the Valencian institute on regional financing delves into the situation of the four communities involved, as they receive less resources compared to the average. Additionally, she noted that «it confirms that the current system, agreed upon in 2009 by the Spanish Government with ERC and without the consensus of the rest of the communities, hinders our growth as we would like.»
In this regard, the Ivie report highlights that the current system allows for differences between autonomous communities of up to 1,000 euros per inhabitant annually. «That one regional government could spend up to 1,000 euros more per citizen than another, based solely on their residence data, is a clear attack on the Constitution, allowing privileges in access to public services based on domicile,» warned España.
Impact on the convergence of underfunded autonomous communities
The document prepared by the Valencian Institute of Economic Research indicates that, for the past sixteen years, Andalucía should have received, at a minimum, 13,411 million euros more. In the case of the Valencian Community, it would be over 20,000 million, for Castilla-La Mancha, nearly 2,000, and for the Murcia Region, over 4,000. It also points out that, in terms of convergence, during the validity of the current Autonomous Financing System, there are communities that have moved up to nine points away from the average.
Thus, Carolina España has highlighted the effort of the Andalucía Regional Government to «move towards convergence despite the difficulties», so that in terms of GDP per capita, Andalucía has progressed by almost a point in convergence with Spain, from the 74.1% recorded in 2018 to the 74.9% in 2022. Conversely, the community lost 2.6 points of convergence, from 76.7% to 74.1%, in the previous decade (2008-2018).
«These data demonstrate that with fair financing, Andalucía would not only be transforming as we are currently doing, but would soar. However, this Autonomous Financing System clips our wings and suffocates us,» she lamented.
In addition to underfunding, the Minister of Economy has pointed out that the current system allocates fewer resources to all autonomous communities than what corresponds to their competencies and the investment required to exercise them, known as global insufficiency. «To meet our competencies, the State should have allocated at least 137,000 million euros more to the autonomous communities since 2008,» she detailed.
In light of this scenario, she has demanded that underfunded communities «we need a financing system without the flaws of the current one, both in terms of equity and sufficiency, that is, a system that does not discriminate against some communities over others and that also has sufficient resources so that all autonomous communities can exercise their competencies.» She has also urged «the implementation of a temporary equalization fund that immediately equalizes our financing to the average, while that system is reformed», an aspect that some institutions like the Foundation for Applied Economics Studies (FEDEA) have estimated to be around 3,000 million euros.
Therefore, she has criticized that, instead of reforming the system, the Spanish Government prioritizes other financing proposals that only benefit certain territories at the expense of others: «Enough of grievances, enough of underfunding, and of course, enough of privileges,» she concluded, ensuring that «from Andalucía, we will not tolerate any more blackmail from separatism, nor will we settle for deception or any kind of fiscal whitewashing, just to legitimize pacts with the separatist partners of the Government.» «We don’t want privileges for others or for ourselves, only what is rightfully ours.»
The Finance officials of the four communities have agreed that the lack of resources to guarantee quality essential public services in health, education, or social policies means diverting funds from other areas, which diminishes the capacity to implement other development policies or progress in convergence with the rest of Spain.
España has reflected on how underfunded communities: «We allocate higher percentages of our income to cover essential public services. When a household lacks money, expenses are first directed to the urgent, which in the case of autonomous communities is health, education, and social services. However, if the funds are limited, no matter how precisely we manage, we are forced to allocate fewer resources to regional development policies, ultimately hindering the growth of our GDP per capita and convergence,» she emphasized.