The new year begins with more than positive news for the people of Cosenza. Cosenza is among the 20 provincial capital cities which, compared to 2023, have seen a decrease in the waste tariff (TARI) applied by the Municipality. This is what emerges from the annual report of Active Citizenship 2024 as part of the project “Citizens who count. Civic survey and proposals on prices and tariffs of public utility services”, co-financed by the Ministry of Productive Activities (now the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy). The Cittadinanzattiva survey involved the waste tariffs applied in all Italian provincial capitals in 2024 and took as reference a typical family made up of 3 people and a 100 square meter home, finding increases compared to 2023 in 84 capitals; decreasing variations in 20 capitals, including Cosenza therefore, and situations substantially unchanged in the remaining cases.
“This is a good wish for Cosenza and our community, but it is also a moment of satisfaction for my municipal administration. With an ongoing crisis and a large inherited debt, which we are paying dearly by shedding blood and tears, having managed to lower the Tari tariff by 5.7% is a wonderful satisfaction because it produces positive effects for many citizens. In the meantime, other capitals have increased the tariff to as much as 10%, we have reduced it, putting ourselves in clear contrast to the national trend”. Mayor Franz Caruso states this and continues: “All this was neither conceivable, much less taken for granted. It was the fruit, however, of determined work which allowed us, in fact, to approve a Tari Financial Plan truly responsive to people’s needs, with a reduction, for the 2024/2025 period, of approximately 300 thousand euros which, in percentage evidently equivalent to that -5.7% reported by the Cittadinanzattiva report. We essentially took charge, as was right for a reformist administration, of the social demands coming from our community. Having optimized and increased collections, so that everyone pays to make everyone pay less, as far as we are concerned it was not just a slogan, but a result that we managed to achieve by intervening on the variable part of the Tari Plan. To this it should be added that we have also supported many families with economic hardship by intervening with the institution’s budget funds for approximately 250 thousand euros. “Could more have been done and better? Perhaps. In the meantime, we have marked the pace of change also on the burden of taxes for citizens for what was within our competence. We will continue to work on this path.” Satisfaction with the active citizenship report was also expressed by the tax councilor Antonello Costanzo who explained: “On the indication of the mayor Franz Caruso not only was the tariff reduced but the range of exemptions was expanded which helps in a helps families with greater economic hardship, managing as a municipal administration to go well beyond any hoped-for result and, all things considered, in just two years since our establishment”.