SK8: Regions Disagree with Personal Income Tax Cuts Due to Consolidation

Svaty Jur, October 3 (TASR) - The Self-governing Regions Association (SK8) doesn't agree with the reduction of the personal income tax due to the consolidation as it is their only source of funding, SK8 stated at a press conference following the meeting of self-governing regions chairs in Svaty Jur (Bratislava region) on Thursday. According to them, 2025 isn't good news for the local authorities, which will need a huge effort to cope financially next year. "We aren't in a position to lose more budgetary resources. In this spirit, we've agreed on a resolution in which SK8 is very sensitive to the impact on the personal income tax. This is happening for the first time ever. We wanted to deal with the consolidation in such a way that we didn't want any extra funds for the needs of 2025. So the message is that the personal income tax shouldn't be cut for the self-governing regions," said Trnava region head Jozef Viskupic. "As part of the consolidation, we want to ask the premier [Robert Fico (Smer-SD)] and the finance minister [Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD)] to somehow forgive us, at least partially, the investment loans that individual self-governing regions pay. It would help the self-governing regions a lot," added Trencin governor Jaroslav Baska. am/mcs