Bellinzona: merger and 2026 budget compared

Context

TL;DR

• In 2017 thirteen municipalities became a single City
• The promise was greater efficiency and fewer duplications
• In 2025, expenditure amounted to 235,8 million and the deficit to 2,7
• In 2026, the budget provides for 253,5 million in expenditure

Key facts

• Merger → 2017: 13 municipalities into a single City
• Initial increase in salaries → approximately 3,37 million, equal to 4,7%
• 2025 expenditure → 235,8 million francs
• 2025 net investments → 25,4 million francs
• 2026 budget → 253,5 million in expenditure, deficit of 9,17 million

In 2017, Bellinzona changed its face: thirteen municipalities became a single City. Almost ten years later, Elio Del Biaggio proposes stopping the discussion of intentions and measuring the results.

The promise was clear: greater efficiency, rationalization, better services, greater investment capacity, and an administrative structure suited to a larger territory. The question concerns not only projects or population growth, but also costs, taxation, services, efficiency, maintenance, and economic development.

The rationalization challenge

The main organizational argument was duplication. Thirteen administrations could have partly duplicate and unnecessary structures and functions. The single City was supposed to consolidate responsibilities, eliminate overlaps, and make better use of staff, streamlining it where necessary.

The analysis, however, describes a different outcome: the old structures would have been combined without any real reduction. The result is therefore a larger municipality, but not necessarily a more efficient and less costly one.

Already in the initial phase, a comparison of the budgets showed an increase in total salaries of approximately 3,37 million francs, equal to 4,7%. It was the start-up phase, and the figure alone perhaps did not demonstrate a genuine failure. But the requested assessment remains concrete: how much did the merger actually cost, and what structural savings did it produce?

The issue also concerns the relationship between staff and services. A modern administration needs competent and motivated people, but the problem arises when new positions and responsibilities do not lead to a proportionate improvement in services. In 2025, the City recorded 235,8 million francs in expenditure, closing with a deficit of 2,7 million, and made 25,4 million in net investments. For 2026, the budget rises to 253,5 million in expenditure, with an expected deficit of 9,17 million.

Operational details

From project to service

The question of the success of the aggregation cannot be resolved by looking only at the City’s new size. The useful comparison is between what should have changed and what the citizen encounters every day: a neighborhood, a street, a sidewalk, a service, a response from the administration or a tax to pay.

Before 2017, the critical point identified by the analysis was the thirteen administrations and their possible overlaps. After unification, the assessment instead concerns the ability to truly reduce structures, duplications and costs. If the old organizations are simply placed side by side within a larger Municipality, the aggregation may change the form without automatically producing greater efficiency.

This framework shifts the judgment from the organizational chart to concrete experience. An increase in salaries is not enough, on its own, to demonstrate a failure; likewise, a new responsibility does not by itself demonstrate an improvement. The figure to look for is the relationship between resources employed and services actually perceived.

In the available text, the scope remains clearly defined even for the cross-border commuter reader: G permits, AVS, LPP, LAMal, tax rebates, withholding tax or double taxation are not examined. The verifiable object is the City’s machinery, with its expenses, taxation, maintenance and services. To keep the public account separate from the personal budget, one can consult the cost of living.

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Key points

A five-step reading procedure

The source already offers a useful sequence for checking whether the aggregation has kept its promises, without adding assumptions unrelated to the available figures.

1. Establish the basis for comparison: in 2017, thirteen municipalities became a single City. This is the starting point for assessing organizational change. 2. Isolate the start-up phase: the comparison of the budgets indicated an increase in total salaries of approximately 3.37 million francs, equal to 4.7%. 3. Read the 2025 result: 235.8 million francs in expenses, a deficit of 2.7 million and 25.4 million in net investments. 4. Focus on 2026: the budget rises to 253.5 million in expenses and forecasts a deficit of 9.17 million. 5. Check the structure: the final check concerns positions eliminated and created, merged functions, the cost of the municipal administration and the relationship between new responsibilities and services.

The fifth step is the one that connects the figures to everyday life. Indeed, the source invites readers to look beyond the organizational chart: citizens live in a neighborhood, travel on roads and sidewalks, use services, wait for responses and pay taxes. Higher costs, bureaucracy or postponed maintenance therefore make precise questions necessary, not generic assessments.

To keep the value expressed in francs distinct from the currency comparison, CHF/EUR comparator is available. The reading of the City's accounts nevertheless remains separate from the individual calculation of salaries. To move from the general figures to your own budget, use salary calculator.

Source: tio.ch