Michal Kalinak: Remisova's Ministry Had Long Name, But Weak Content

Bratislava, November 13 (TASR) - At the time of its creation under the leadership of Veronika Remisova (For the People), the Investment, Regional Development and Informatisation Ministry (MIRRI) had a long name but weak content, MIRRI state secretary Michal Kalinak (Voice-SD) said on TASR TV on Wednesday. During the first year in the office, the new government, therefore, was adding new agenda to the ministry so that the platform of competences corresponded to the level in the surrounding countries, stated Kalinak. Kalinak disagrees with the attitudes of several current politicians of the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party, who voted for the establishment of a new ministry in 2020, although they knew it could have had different and better content, criticising its existence today. "The problem isn't in the fact that we have a ministry, the problem is that in the past it didn't have the content it deserved and the regions expected," stated Kalinak. He views the discussion on a new form of financing of local government as one of the key regional issues. President Peter Pellegrini also wants to contribute to it, as he intends to organise a meeting of local government representatives in the Presidential Palace at the beginning of next year, said Kalinak. Kalinak noted that on January 1, it will be 20 years since local governments stopped being financed ad hoc based on political decisions, but gained a much more predictable source of income in the form of personal income tax revenues. According to Kalinak, the weaknesses of this model were explicitly shown by the decision of Igor Matovic's government to increase the tax bonus, which automatically reduced the revenues from the personal income tax. "This model didn't bring any extra help to families, but brought extra harm to municipalities, which are still recovering from it," says Kalinak. Therefore, he thinks that in the future the state should guarantee to municipalities that their incomes will not fall compared to the previous year. Under these conditions, the income from one tax, the personal income tax, could be replaced by a mix of revenues from several taxes. "It's a question of the economic stability of local governments. If I get revenue from several taxes, it could be more stable than from a single tax," Kalinak explained. ko/mcs