Central government compensation for lost local council revenues has been higher in cities run by left-wing councils than those headed by pro-government administrations, a Fidesz official told public radio on Tuesday.
Károly Szita, the Fidesz mayor of Kaposvár who also heads the Association of Cities with County Rights (MJVSZ), said central measures such as reducing the tax rate that businesses pay locally had dented local council revenues but 150 billion forints (EUR 418m) had remained with these firms, helping job-retention.
He said the government had committed to negotiating with each municipality individually during the preparations of the 2021 budget, and help would be directed to localities where “belts were especially tight”.
Budapest Mayor Presents Alternative Plan to Use of Recovery Funds
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony on Sunday presented an alternative plan on the use of the European Union’s pandemic recovery fund, developed by the Association of Hungarian Municipalities (MÖSZ).
The Hungarian government submitted its plan on the use of the fund at the end of April, pledging to use the funding to cover a “new health-care system”, and to raise the quality of health-care nationwide.
Also as part of the government plan, projects funded with a view to reducing carbon emissions will include upgrading track-based transport, strengthening higher education and transitioning to a circular economy.
LMP: Govt Discriminating Against Opposition-Run Local Councils
The opposition LMP party has accused the government of discriminating against local councils run by opposition officials when it comes to distributing funding.
In a video posted on Facebook on Saturday, LMP lawmaker Péter Ungár accused Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of favouring pro-government localities.
By contrast, Austria handed a large portion of funding to municipalities, “knowing precisely” that they were best placed to combat the effects of the coronavirus epidemic, he said.
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony and 37 mayors of Budapest districts and cities around Hungary demanded in a joint statement on Sunday that the government withdraw a decision on halving the local business tax. The statement issued by an organisation dubbed Alliance of Free Cities said the move would be a “final blow” to local councils. […]Continue reading
Budapest Mayor Slams Govt Over Missing Business Tax Revenue Compensations
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony on Thursday slammed the government for what he said was a failure to keep its promise to compensate local councils for a shortfall in their local business tax revenues.
As part of its coronavirus crisis relief, the government has halved the local business tax this year for companies with annual turnover of under 4 billion forints (EUR 11.1m) and fewer than 250 people on payroll.
“Last December when the prime minister gutted the local council system with the stroke of a pen by depriving localities of one of their main revenue sources … there was still talk of meaningful compensation and meaningful consultations on the matter,” Karácsony said on Facebook. “But we have had neither.”
Friday’s vaccinations turned chaotic following Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s statement that Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines would finally be accessible to everyone on Friday, and Friday alone, since afterwards it would not be available for weeks. The vaccine registry database was overwhelmed and crashed early in the morning, likely due to thousands of people wanting to be vaccinated with the 100 thousand doses of the vaccine. Hungarians around the country, both registered and non-registered, ended up waiting in lines hundreds of meters long.
Hungary’s vaccination program has progressed quite well, with the country being second best in the EU in proportion to its population inoculated with at least one jab. However, hundreds of thousands of people have been eagerly awaiting their first shot. Some of them only wanted the more popular Western vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, but these, with a few exceptions, were only accessible to the elderly, healthcare workers, Olympians,