Without state financial support, towns, villages and regions might not be able to draft balanced budgets for the next year, warned chair of the Slovak Towns and Villages Association (ZMOS) Jozef Bozik on Tuesday.
According to ZMOS, the towns and villages are half a billion euros short.
Towns and villages are also hampered by the fact that they're legally supposed to submit their budgets by December 15, but seeing as they don't know what new taxes the state plans to introduce as of next year, many will table and approve their budgets only during January and February.
Bozik pointed out that ZMOS had been warning already back in 2022 that the year 2023 would be quite challenging in this regard, which is why many towns and villages have been forced to raise taxes. "A large proportion of the towns and villages that didn't do so in the previous year are doing it this year," he claimed and warned that not even that measure can cover the loss of public income. "Tax raises, whether by 30, 40 or 50 percent still fall short in comparison to what the towns and villages lack." Bozik added that the expenditure has swelled due to inflation, higher salaries and the introduction of a new parking policy.
Even though the governing coalition promised to help the towns, villages and regions, the ZMOS chair warned that it's still not clear how the 2024 state budget will look and hence they're left in the dark. Because of this, the ZMOS expects to meet with both Prime Minister Robert Fico and Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (both Smer-SD) soon.
The ZMOS also heaped criticism on a bill submitted to Parliament by MPs Jan Mazgut and Erik Kalinak (both Smer-SD), adding that lawmakers once again intend to interfere with the powers of local authorities without any prior discussion. "The bill is supposed to enable the state to interfere with powers concerning local roads that fall exclusively into the purview of towns and villages," warned Bozik, who plans to send a letter to all the lawmakers and ask them to put an end to these "unfair practices".
(TASR)
