Centre Initiative: Budget Adopted without Proper Dialogue with Municipalities

Banska Bystrica, 21 October (TASR) - The Centre Initiative, an association of regional and municipal politicians from Banska Bystrica region, has criticised the fact that the process of adopting the public administration budget for 2026 took place without a proper dialogue with local authorities, TASR was told by the Centre Initiative on Tuesday. Regional politicians are calling on Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD) to make a public promise that in the event of the tax forecast not being met, local governments will be given additional funds from other state revenues. Representatives of local authorities from Banska Bystrica region said that next year's state budget, which MPs greenlighted on Tuesday, was adopted without any wider professional and social discussion. "Local authorities learnt about the government's intentions via a presentation on a social network posted by the Finance Ministry. In this case, we can't speak of a budget discussed, but rather a budget imposed," said the initiative. The regional politicians respect the fact that there are different political and expert views on budget priorities, but it's crucial for local governments to have realistic budget forecasts. "Bad estimates have a fatal impact on road repairs, running schools, social services, cleaning, lighting, the functioning of cultural stalls, not to mention development projects and the co-financing of projects from EU funds," stated chairman of Banska Bystrica self-governing region Ondrej Lunter. am/df