The Foundation for Applied Economic Studies (Fedea) detects "equity problems" in the autonomous financing system linked to singular competencies, distortions that it considers "practically invisible" to the majority of the population. In its analysis, it places Catalonia as the autonomous community that received the most funds for the management of these specific attributions, with 450 euros per resident, compared to the barely 8 euros per capita assigned to Castilla-La Mancha.
These conclusions are included in a recent report on the cost of non-homogeneous competencies, prepared by the director of Fedea, Ángel de la Fuente, where it is warned that this distribution scheme causes very marked differences between the communities of common regime.
With data corresponding to 2023, Fedea calculates that Catalonia leads this chapter with 3.563 billion euros, an amount that translates into an index of 243.4, almost two and a half times above the average of the autonomous communities of common regime, which stands at 185 euros per inhabitant.
Behind Catalonia are Cantabria and La Rioja as the regions with the highest funding per resident for these concepts, with allocations of 320 and 318 euros, respectively.
At the opposite end are the communities that have practically not assumed singular competencies. This is the case of Castilla-La Mancha, with 8 euros per inhabitant; Castilla y León, with 9 euros, and Extremadura, with 11 euros per resident.
Inequalities and methodology of "historical cost"
The Fedea document focuses on the fact that the application of the "historical cost" methodology causes "very disparate and incoherent valuations" for equivalent services depending on the community in which they are provided. According to its author, these differences are "practically invisible" to citizens because the Ministry of Finance does not periodically disseminate disaggregated information.
After examining the 2023 exercise, Fedea estimates the total volume allocated to singular competencies at 8.319 billion euros, that is, functions that are only managed by some autonomous communities.
After the Catalan autonomous police, the singular competency with the highest cost is the personnel of the Administration of Justice, which totals 1.765 billion euros, followed by the provincial participation in state revenues, with 1.329 billion.
The study specifies that, below, are the funds for linguistic normalization, with 813 million, the provincial hospitals, with 606 million, and the penitentiary institutions of Catalonia, with 603 million.
Differences in Justice, education, and provincial competencies
In this context, the report provides examples of very different costs for the same service, which it considers "hardly justifiable".
In the case of the Administration of Justice, a competence transferred to ten communities, the expenditure per inhabitant covers a range of more than 80 index points. While Asturias receives 81.8 euros per resident, Galicia receives 35.5 euros and the Community of Valencia 37.7 euros per inhabitant.
The gap is even greater in the financing of religion teachers, where the amount per school-age student shows deviations exceeding 150 index points. Asturias leads this distribution with 88.7 euros per student, compared to the 20 euros of Catalonia or the 29.2 euros of the Balearic Islands.
Regarding the assessment of the competencies of the provinces, the report places Madrid at 136 euros per capita, compared to the 367 euros allocated to Extremadura.