Bolojan highlights the issue of administrative-territorial reorganization: “The longer you postpone an illness, the higher the costs will be”

Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan spoke on Monday evening, for the first time, about the possibility of an administrative-territorial reorganization at the level of the country, against the background of the situation faced by some local authorities, which have higher expenses than revenues.

“We no longer had the possibility to transfer huge sums to the local authorities. All Romanians must know what the situation is: in Europe, the total revenues collected by the town halls in Europe, local taxes, property taxes, cover, in general, all their expenses. In Romania, all the revenues of the local authorities cover only a quarter of the personnel expenses. So this is quite a big problem. We are the country with the largest transfers from the central budget to the local authorities”, he declared the head of government, in an interview with Digi24.

“We make almost half of the investments in this country through the local authorities, but not with their money, but with the money transferred by the Government or European funds or other national programs. This could not continue and we had to take some measures to correct things. I agree that it is not a good situation, but we can see every day what problems certain measures generate, the problem is what are the other solutions, because there are no other solutions than to reduce our expenses (…), to we increase revenues, but not by increasing fees and taxes, but by collecting our revenues and staggering investments, we have no other option”, explained the prime minister.

“So our administration cannot even cover its personnel expenses,” the prime minister pointed out.

“The town halls in the communes that have a correctly calculated staff and do not need reductions, and others have hired more than was necessary. Either we prove that the current administrative formula can work in the current framework or if we do not prove this until an administrative reorganization is reached. When we will have our backs against the wall. The longer you postpone an illness, the higher the costs will be,” warned Bolojan.

Other statements by Bolojan, about the possibility of administrative-territorial reorganization:

• “So we have a spending restriction, everyone has to participate in it. All local authorities will have larger amounts than they had last year, but the amounts that the Government can transfer directly will not be as large. But because they increase their property tax revenue they will be covered.
• If you didn't scoff at the money you managed, if you didn't hire work without cover, you can't have your back against the wall if you don't scoff at the community's money.
• (Local authorities) They must reduce their expenses to the maximum – collect all the taxes you have established – then they no longer have to sit with their hand outstretched to the state budget. I did this in Oradea, I am not speaking out of ignorance.“

The prime minister admitted on Monday evening, in the same interview, that there are Romanians for whom “any kind of increase” in terms of the cost of living, including the increase in local taxes, represents “a pressure”. He argued that the Romanian state could no longer function with fees and taxes at their previous value, reasoning that “we no longer have money for exemptions and vouchers”.

“Some town halls increased the car tax much more than the government set. The current legislation does not allow them to reduce it now. So some dissatisfaction arose because of this type of calculations that were not applied well. We could no longer go with the level of taxation we had,” said Bolojan.