The budget of the Bucharest City Hall, discussed today in a Government meeting after Ciprian Ciucu said that “he doesn't even have money to cross the street”

The General Mayor of the Capital, Ciprian Ciucu, went to the Government on Wednesday together with the mayors of the sectors to discuss with the Deputy Prime Minister Taczos Barna about the future budget of the Capital, but no decision was made.

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The meeting at the Victoria Palace lasted about an hour and a half. Each District Mayor presented the budget situation, but no decision was made. However, according to HotNews information, several such meetings would take place in the coming period until the approval of the national budget for 2026.

“The discussions were constructive”, say sources who participated in the meeting.

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The meeting, which is scheduled for 3:00 p.m., takes place on a day when Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan is away on an official visit to Germany.

The Bolojan government entered 2026 without finalizing the national budget, as is usually the case. Initially, the plan was for the budget to be adopted at the end of January or the beginning of February. The current estimate of the authorities is the second half of February.

So far, the prime minister has held discussions about the budget project with all the ministers, with the governor of the National Bank and with the president Nicușor Dan.

Dan Nicușor said on December 17, 2025 that “it's not good that we don't even have the draft budget”. “We were supposed to have the budget on December 31. The urgency for the coalition is to give the budget for 2026”, the president said then.

The condition set by the president to sign the budget

Nicușor Dan stated in an interview given in December for Epoch Times that he will not promulgate the budget if he ignores the referendum for the Capital of 2024 when the Bucharesters voted that the distribution between the Bucharest City Hall and the District Town Halls of the income taxes and the local taxes and fees collected from the Bucharest residents should be approved by the General Council of the Bucharest Municipality. Until now, the repatriation was done by the government, and Nicușor Dan complained, when he was mayor general, about insufficient allocations for PMB.

“Parliament must be pro-active and change the part of local taxes, and one that pertains to the national budget law – the division between the Capital City Hall and the sector town halls. I will not sign the national budget law that ignores the referendum,” Nicușor Dan told Epoch Times.

Ciprian Ciucu: “PMB doesn't even have money to cross the street”

For his part, the new mayor of the Capital, Ciprian Ciucu, stated several times that, although the General City Hall received 317 million lei from the Government for the month of January, “PMB does not even have money to cross the street”. Through a post on Facebook, the general mayor showed that, compared to January from other money, the amount received in 2026 is lower:

• “358 million, January 2022;

• 400 million, January 2025″, explained Ciprian Ciucu in the post of January 13.

He showed that the 317 million lei were spent, mostly on salaries, debts, subsidies or litigation and that the Capital City Hall was left with “approx. 20 million”.

Ciucu asked for support from Nicușor Dan and Ilie Bolojan

In his first press conference as general mayor, Ciucu confirmed the problems previously reported by Nicușor Dan regarding the budget problems of the municipality of Bucharest.

“I want to say, right from the start, that Mr. President Nicusor Dan was and is right regarding the structural problem of the Bucharest municipality budget. It is a small miracle that Mr. former Mayor General Nicusor Dan managed to keep this city hall afloat”, said Ciprian Ciucu on December 20.

He emphasized in the national budget law for the year 2026 that Bucharest City Hall needs to receive 70% of the entire city's budget “to avoid bankruptcy”. On Facebook, he said that he relies on the support of President Nicușor Dan to implement the referendum for Bucharest and Prime Minister Bolojan for the necessary reforms at the level of the Capital.

Mergers of institutions and price increases for public transport

In an intervention at Euronews Romania, Ciucu announced that he is preparing a series of measures to bring more money to the budget of the General City Hall.

“I can announce for the first time that on next week's agenda of the City Council a small series of public institutions will be closed, I have prepared projects. There are institutions that have no reason to exist but that spend money on rents, cars, all kinds of nonsense,” said Ciprian Ciucu.