Cities losing cash, provinces gaining

Despite the crisis, the provinces have seen their own capacity rise considerably in the last few years. Municipalities, however, became poorer and racked up more debts. This from a comparison of yearly accounts from Deloitte in assignment from Binnenlands Bestuur. The municipalities' debts rose by a quarter between 2010 and 2012, from €23.8 to €29.4 billion. This is because municipalities kept investing, despite the crisis, but with borrowed money. Their own capacity dropped in that period per resident with an average of €140 to €1759. Municipalities had to take hard losses at expensive purchases of land for building homes, which was actually useless because the housing market crashed. The provinces managed to grow their own assets from €12.6 to €13.3 billion.