Overview
- Mendoza’s Legislation and Constitutional Affairs Committee, meeting Wednesday after the chamber’s renewal, issued a favorable report that puts the Article 197 amendment before the full Senate next week pending a Monday scheduling meeting.
- The bill lets each municipality call a convention to draft a local charter, and it allows councils to set their own renewal method instead of the current rule that forces half-seats to turn over every two years.
- Provincial oversight would remain in place through the Tribunal de Cuentas and the provincial Attorney General, and municipalities would be barred from creating new taxes, limiting revenue to service fees, betterment charges, and public space use rights.
- Lawmakers accepted targeted edits that soften central checks, replacing legislative ratification of local charters with a simple notice to the Legislature and adding language to recognize cooperation across municipal regions.
- The Peronist bloc opposed advancing the file, tying its stance to the court dispute that halted San Rafael’s autonomy process, while the project already holds lower-house approval and now awaits a floor debate that could trigger local charter drives and changes to election calendars.