Chisinau faces budget deficit, government blamed

The municipality's budget for 2009 is expected to be extremely deficient as it will not cover half of the city's demands, informed Deputy Mayor Mihai Furtuna at today's City Hall ordinary meeting, Info-Prim Neo reports. The 2009 budget provides for incomes of 1.534 billion lei, which is by 115 million less than this year and by 277 million lei less than in 2007. “This is a rather impressive decrease”, declared the deputy mayor. At the same time, expenses will constitute 1.59 billion lei, by 8 million less than this year. According to Mihai Furtuna, funding for a number of municipal agencies will be drastically cut. For example, the health division will receive only 26.7 percent of the requested amount, the housing division will get but 27 percent, and the transport department 47 percent. The situation concerning education is brighter, with financing approved in a proportion of 84 percent. No money at all is earmarked for capital constructions, an area which requires at least 800 million lei next year. The deputy mayor blamed the decrease in revenues on the cancellation of the entrepreneurial tax, which resulted in a subtraction of 75 million lei this year, and a decrease of 425 million lei compared to 2007. To fill the hole in the budget, Mihai Furtuna suggested the municipality should privatize non-residential structures, sell municipality-owned stocks and land. The city authorities say the scarcity of the 2009 municipal budget is partially the consequence of the “legislative amendments made by the central authorities which don't allow for the accumulation of similar incomes as in the years 2006-2007” as well as of the “numerous court orders and the alleged debt of 147 million lei owed to Termocom”. According to Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca, “limits have been established by law to impede progress in what concerns incomes in the municipality of Chisinau”. “The solution we are forced to go for – to sell municipal property to cover immediate expenses – doesn't make sense (...) What will we do in one or two years when there will be nothing to sell? This question is ignored both by the Moldovan government and certain factions in the City Council” Though complaining that the “trend is wrong”, the mayor said “the municipality has seen situations worse that this year” and emboldened the civil servants with a “we must handle it”. Chisinau's draft budget for 2009 was submitted for consideration to the specialized commissions of the City Council earlier in October. So far it has been approved by the legal commissions and the commission for architecture and constrictions.