Salaries of regional councillors: explanations from the Region

Memo issued by the Lombardy Regional Council 

We would like to explain that the payslip presented by the council group of M5S does not correspond to the salary of one month, but of a month and a half, from the beginning of the legislature until the end of April. Furthermore, the regional and city surtaxes have not yet been deducted from the payslip, but will be at a later stage, in accordance with current regulations.

The net salary of a Lombardy Region councillor is not €16,000 per month. The regional councillors of the 10^th legislature, who have just taken office, immediately set up a work group to reduce the cost of politics, which will implement the provisions of national legislation by June, that is, a significant reduction in the salaries of regional councillors; salaries will be reduced to €6500 net, which corresponds to a gross salary of €6500, plus a gross allowance of €4600 (to cover documented expenses). Currently, the monthly salary of regional councillors is approximately €8500 (to which, since the beginning of this legislature, other amounts for social security purposes should be added).

Moreover, the same work group promptly took the decisions that do not require any legislative act, namely, the budget cuts for council groups, which have been reduced by one third, saving a total of €450,000.

The M5S councillors received the same, full salary as the other councillors, without producing any savings for the Council. Like many other councillors, the M5S members expressed their intention to donate part of their salaries for social and solidarity purposes. In order to make this possible, a measure is necessary. In the last few weeks, the President of the Regional Council appointed council officials to find an effective way to achieve this objective.