Buenos Aires Farmers Turn to Courts to Learn How Much Is Collected and Spent on Rural Roads

Rural producers in Adolfo Alsina have taken the municipality to court to find out how much it collects through local fees and where that money goes, particularly funds tied to rural roads.

The producers filed an access-to-information request on June 11, but said the municipality did not provide the documents in the requested form. Their court action seeks information on the fee for conserving, repairing, and improving municipal streets and rural roads, as well as charges for livestock marks and signs and for safety, health, and hygiene inspections.

The rural-road issue is especially contentious because producers say the district’s roads are in poor condition and hinder transportation and productive activity. They want to determine what share of the money paid by users of the road network actually reaches maintenance and repair work.

According to the filing, the municipality replied that its accounting and budget system, based on the Municipal Financial Administration Reform, does not identify expenditures separately for each fee. It therefore said it lacked documents breaking down spending for 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 by the requested tax categories.

The producers dispute that explanation. Their filing cites Articles 166 and 169 of the Buenos Aires provincial Municipalities Organic Law, which set requirements for recording municipal income and expenses. The case, sponsored by lawyer Pablo Abdon Torres Barthe, also says the municipality reported $313,984,688.05 in revenue from the livestock marks and signs fee as of July 1, 2026, alongside 4,875 procedures related to guides, marks, and signs during 2026.