As part of the local public administration reform, the issue of fiscal decentralization must be a priority, so that local authorities have their own resources to provide better services and strengthen their institutional capacity. This opinion belongs to Marcel Bobeica, mayor of the village of Gangura, and was expressed during the public debate “Local Communities and Voluntary Merger Decisions”, organized by the IPN News Agency. Furthermore, according to the mayor, the new budgetary and fiscal policy currently under public discussion risks having the opposite effect by reducing the revenue sources of local public administrations.
Marcel Bobeica argues that the APL reform should not be reduced merely to the process of merging localities, but must be accompanied by measures that strengthen the financial autonomy of the town halls.
“We understand that reform is necessary, but reform does not just mean unification. Reform also means financial resources, that is, own revenues. But we see that the budgetary-fiscal policy, which is now under discussion, does not provide own revenues to the local public administration. If we analyze the budgetary-fiscal policy, we see that the impact is negative on local budgets”, explained the mayor of Gangura village, Ialoveni district.
According to the mayor, the budget-fiscal policy project contains provisions that will reduce the revenues of local administrations and will limit their ability to finance projects for citizens. “There is a reduction in the income tax rate for individuals. Moreover, from 2028 there could be the elimination of the tax for territorial arrangement, which is now a source of income for the local administration. Furthermore, caps are introduced on taxes and duties. This measure, in the long term, will influence local budgets”, the mayor specified.
Marcel Bobeica says that the success of the APL reform depends on ensuring real financial decentralization. “If we want strong, reliable APLs, they must have their own income. Own income means providing the citizen of the respective locality with better services, with better infrastructure. In addition, we will be able to attract employees who provide these services. We need to increase the institutional capacity as well, but we cannot increase the institutional capacity if we do not have our own income. The reform must first and foremost solve the problem of financial decentralization”, said the mayor of Gangura.
Disclaimer: This material was prepared by the IPN News Agency as part of the “Local Public Administration Reform Through Dialogue” project, funded by the Ministry of Culture through the Media Grant Fund.
