2023-04-23 12:35:58
The city of Košice will not be able to draw up a budget for this year without loans, Mayor Jaroslav Polaček thinks so. He said this after the City Council (MsZ) at its special meeting on Thursday suspended negotiations on accepting a loan of 3.8 million euros, which was supposed to help achieve a balanced budget. Deputies want the loan to be discussed when the draft budget is presented. The city has been in a provisional budget since January.
According to Polaček, as a result of government measures and packages, Košice is missing millions of euros. When the draft budget was drawn up roughly half a year ago, it was more than 100 million euros. Money in the budget should be brought, for example, by an increase in fares in public transport or a new parking policy, which the deputies agreed to. However, they refused to increase the fee for waste from next year, which was foreseen in the draft budget.
“I don’t think it’s going to work without loans, because we’ve really crossed out all the items that we know how to cross out. Now we lack 15 million euros to have a balanced budget. On the other hand, if we want to take such a loan, we must have coverage for it in future periods in order to be able to repay it,” he said.
In March, the city council approved the acceptance of a loan for additional financing and preparation of projects from European funds in the amount of 8.6 million euros. However, it made it conditional on submitting the budget by April 30 at the latest. It is not yet known when exactly the budget for 2023 will be discussed. On the city’s website, information is currently published about the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers, which is to be held on Tuesday. The agenda should include information on cost-saving measures related to waste management and, again, the local fee for municipal waste.
Don’t overlook
The city of Košice still does not have a budget, which is the longest since 2011
#Košice #draw #budget #loans