The Madrid Assembly has decided to increase the annual budget for taxi expenses for its 135 deputies to 270,000 euros, according to public documentation consulted by EL PAÍS. The increase translates into an additional 500 euros available for each representative, who will now be able to spend 2,000 euros per year on this mode of transport, if they so wish. The decision adopted by the Bureau, the body that regulates the day-to-day running of the Chamber, coincides with deputies having raised their salaries four times in the last two years. The decision comes at a time when the Chamber is facing the next regional electoral cycle, scheduled for 2027, which implies the possibility of a change in the majority of the regional Parliament.
On April 10, Ana Millán (PP), first vice-president of the Assembly, asked during the Bureau meeting about the adjustment of taxi service amounts. The administrative director of the regional Parliament was in charge of answering her.
“Following the extension and modification of the current taxi contract, from July 1 to December 31, 2026, cards will be recharged with an additional 500 euros to the initial credit remaining for each user, with the total credit per card being 2,000 euros during 2026,” she detailed. “For next year, as there will be a change of legislature, cards will be loaded on January 1 until the end of the legislature with the proportional part of an annual credit of 2,000 euros.”
The increase, in any case, still needs to be officially confirmed, according to the taxi association responsible for providing the service, which only has knowledge of “an informal conversation” about it. “There is no formal document from our side,” explains a spokesperson in a telephone conversation.
Consulted by this newspaper, a spokesperson for the Assembly, chaired by Enrique Ossorio (PP), confirmed the agreement. “The Bureau unanimously approved increasing the budget allocated to the taxi service for deputies to carry out their political work by 500 euros, reaching 2,000 euros annually,” he detailed. “In the Congress of Deputies, it is 3,000 euros,” he specified. “In the Assembly, this amount had not been updated since 2010.”
The argument that the improvement updates a situation that no longer corresponds to present costs not only ignores that nothing obliges deputies to travel by taxi. It also replicates explanations similar to those given to justify the increase in the basic salary of deputies, which has increased up to four times in the last two years.
Thus, representatives of Madrid residents with exclusivity will earn a basic salary of more than 4,000 gross euros in 2026 thanks to the fourth salary increase in two years, which was decided. This accumulated increase of 13%, which Más Madrid and Vox opposed, was accompanied by a 4% improvement in subsidies to parties, turning a deaf ear to criticism from the Court of Auditors.
As a result, the basic salary of deputies retroactively became, compared to, and, when the streak of four increases in two years began. A trend that seems unlikely to stop. According to the agreement now adopted, this basic allowance will add an additional 1.5% in 2026, which could reach 2% depending on the evolution of the CPI this year, in imitation of the state agreement. In this way, the basic salary will reach a minimum of 4,039.79 euros.
To this basic figure are added substantial supplements for occupying key roles in the Assembly: from the 577.31 gross euros per month added by secretaries and vice-presidents of committees, to the 2,413.58 euros for the presidency of the Chamber, passing through the 1,655.83 euros added by co-spokespersons, or the 2,074.24 euros for spokespersons.
The Madrid Assembly then justified the salary increase for deputies by stating that it is linked to the one decided by the State for all public sector employees. However, there is no obligation to apply this measure to politicians with a mandate. It is done this way because the parties in Madrid want it that way.
Regarding the improvement of party subsidies, from this year each group will receive 560,368.95 euros annually (compared to 538,816.30 until now), as well as 20,786.21 euros annually for each of the 135 deputies (compared to 19,986.74 until now). This is a 4% increase in both cases.
More money for parties
This is also a discretionary decision that the Court of Auditors views unfavorably, as can be deduced from an audit report published in December and focused on the 2024 accounts.
After detecting that in that year there was a 10% increase in the fixed subsidy received by parties in the Madrid Assembly, and a 12.2% increase in the variable subsidy, reaching 4.8 million euros in public money spent to finance the PP, Más Madrid, PSOE, and Vox, the auditing body lamented “the lack of objective criteria that determine the setting of the amount” and also “the lack of internal regulation that includes a greater specification of the nature of the expenses to which the subsidy must be applied.”
The current regulation for the control of this expenditure by the Intervention, denounced the Court of Auditors, “is insufficient.” And furthermore, the justification of the expenses incurred with this public money “either does not exist or is not detailed in the reports.” A call for restraint that, according to the decisions adopted, has not been heard. Neither in salaries, nor in subsidies, nor in aid for their lordships to travel by taxi.
