PS: Gov't Takes Away Even More Money from Towns and Villages

Bratislava, November 5 (TASR) - Opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) is concerned by the current approach shown by the government regarding the financing of local authorities, finding it hostile and inadequate in light of their needs, MP Marek Lackovic (PS) declared on Tuesday. "Do they really want towns and villages to thaw out their reserves? Let's recall how all this got started. First, the government failed to complete the financing of our local and regional authorities. It dumped all prudent motions, in which numbers were crunched, into the thrash bin. And it tossed only a proverbial gnawed bone worth of €50 million to the regions, which they are somehow supposed to share and survive on until the end of 2024. This came with a promise that 2025 will somehow be addressed, yet that hasn't happened, either," said Lackovic. "They took away from towns and villages the entire one and half percent in tax income for the following years, so as to make them have even less money. And then, at the end of the day, they even arrogantly came up with a proposal to have local authorities thaw out savings in their own reserve funds, into which the authorities put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears, by the end of 2025. These are supposed to be used to cover regular expenditure! And as if this were not enough, the entire justification for this motion takes up about four lines of an A4 paper and is presented as a common lawmaker proposal [without the option to attach comments - ed.note]. This needs to stop already," underlined Lackovic. mf/mcs