Tervuren town councilors this month turn to annual accounts as Mayor Thomas Geyns executes the most expensive spending plans in our town’s history. The €74 million earmarked for 2026–31 pushes municipal debt from nearly €23 million in 2025 to near €44 million by 2031 — if there are no spending overruns.
Geyns insists residents have nothing to fear. Taxes are not rising, he has told us, as if that alone offsets the scale of the borrowing for a town of 23,179.
A technical manoeuvre helps soften the optics: the transfer of debt — and the GITO technical school building — to the public education network GO. It lowered the headline figure just as he entered office, but not the underlying reality. Tervuren is borrowing aggressively to finance a wave of major projects.
To counter concerns, the 29-year old mayor is releasing shiny Voor Tervuren graphics highlighting what it calls “clear progress” in investment execution. In 2023, fewer than half of planned projects were delivered, apparently. By 2025, the rate had climbed to 60 percent. The message is supposedly simple: the town is spending more and faster.
N‑VA Councillor Broke Ranks to Slam Debt Plans
Geyns argues that previous administrations were too focused on austerity. Former mayors Marc Charlier and Jan Spooren prioritised debt reduction but didn’t invest enough, apparently.
When Geyns presented his €74 million spending plans, N‑VA councillor Ralph Packet forgot party discipline to counter the mayor’s narrative. And Packet, a former MEP, stated the bare truth: Under N-VA mayors, our town was finally able to cut municipal debt from €70 million to €20 million. That followed the stormy departure of controversial liberal predecessor, now honorary mayor, Bruno Eulaerts,
The current mayor’s strategy is unmistakable: borrow €39 million long-term, risking interest rate rises, to invest in large, expensive projects. That’s a €20 million overhaul of the Diependal sports complex. At least another €10 million for a new school in Moorsel. Scratch a little further in the details and the €10 million Masterplan Zoniën turns out to be craftiliy budgeted by the mayor at only €1.1 million in this plan. The remaining €8.9 million will be for Tervuren taxpayers to pay under the next multi-annual plan from 2031.
Cost Overruns: A Pattern for Tervuren
Our town knows cost overruns well. The Berg Termunt football stadium doubled in price to €3.1 million. The cultural centre renovation, once presented at roughly €2.2 million, evolved into an administrative centre and library costing more than €13 million. Standard Belgian architect and planning fees of 8 to 12 percent will push future budgets even higher.
The mayor is betting that today’s investments will pay off tomorrow. Or, at least, that residents forget initial cost projections by elections on Sunday 13 October 2030.
Perhaps they will. But doubling municipal debt is not progress by default. It is a political choice — and a gamble on a future that has yet to prove him right.
