The financial crisis and its negative effects on the local budgets made the local public authorities significantly cut the spending intended for the implementation of investment and logistic projects. In order to maintain the current financing level and pay salaries, the local public authorities will have to drastically reduce, even halve the costs for such services as heating and electric power in public institutions and for purchasing food products for children in kindergartens and schools. This is said in a study of the impact of the crisis on the local communities carried out by the Analytical Center Expert – Grup. The study was presented at a roundtable meeting held under the aegis of UNDP–Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to Valeriu Prohnitski, the executive director of Expert - Grup, the consequences of the crisis affected the incomes earned by the local companies, especially the small and medium-sized enterprises, the households, the vulnerable groups. Consumption was seriously affected by the over 30% decrease in remittances. About 37,000 migrants working in Russia and 8,000 migrants working in Italy had to return home after losing their jobs, the study says. The crisis pushed the number of discouraged persons who see no solutions for improving their living conditions up by 86%. The unemployment rate is on the rise. The number of persons that suffer from mental illnesses and tried to kill themselves has also increased. The study contains a series of recommendations for the government and for the local public authorities, like the necessity of working our a more transparent and predictable mechanism for distributing the revenues and taxes between the central and local budgets. According to the authors of the study, if the local budgets are granted autonomy the local authorities could meet the payments or could better adapt to the sudden decrease in revenues. The Ministry of Finance and the local public authorities should hold discussions and agree on the amendments that are to be introduced into the budget law for 2009. Representatives of the local public authorities should be open for cooperation with the international financial organizations and bilateral donors so as to obtain financial resources for different projects. In this connection, the Resident Representative of UNDP Moldova Kaarina Immmonen assured that the UNDP will asst Moldova in ensuring better living standards through its community development projects. The mayor of Soldanesti town Alexandru Tinica told the meeting participants that the efficient cooperation with the UNDP and other foreign donors helped the town solve a series of social problems, including the sanitation problem. “We learned a lot from the cooperation with our partners and did many things together so that Soldanesti was not seriously affected by the crisis,” the mayor said.