Three Krakow councilors from the ruling Civic Coalition mistakenly voted against the Multi-Year Financial Forecast. For this reason, the coming into force of the city budget for the next year was doubtful. Opposition councilors say this is the result of a “rush to reject” all the reforms they proposed. The council will try again on Monday to pass this document.
A multi-year financial forecast (WPF) is a document in which a local government sets out its planned income and expenditure for at least the next four years. In the resolution, including: the expected debt and the source of its repayment, as well as multi-year assignments, including funding, such as the construction of a new street, the construction of a park or the renovation of buildings. The city budget is a similar document, but in it, expenses and income are planned only for the next year. A budget is the basis of how officials spend money.
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Now is the last call for municipal councils to accept both of these documents. In Krakow, the budget was adopted in the last session, but its entry into force was in doubt, because the representatives did not accept the multi-year financial forecast.
Krakow City HallTVN24
The error of Krakow's counsellors. They threw away an important decision
Although the city is governed by President Oleksandr Miszalski of the Civic Alliance and he has a majority in the city council (thanks to the votes of the KO and new left councilors), in the last vote on Wednesday, the opposition votes prevailed. PiS and Kraków voted to accept the WPF for the resident council. Three deputies of KO also voted in the same way. As it turned out, by mistake.
Mayor of Krakow Alexander Miszalski PAP/Lukas Gagulski
The decision went to waste.
– There is no division in the coalition, there was a mistake at work. The deputies, sitting next to each other, may have looked on out of some kind of indifference or voted against. They thought it was another amendment and instead of voting for it, they voted against it. After the vote, they were destroyed and destroyed – explained the head of the club of KO councilors Grzegorz Stawowi in an interview with tvn24.pl.
Stavoi explained that it is impossible to repeat the vote, because only one technical reason allows for a repeat vote – for example, a mistake in the voting equipment. And there is no mistake.
As a result, not only the DOCUMENT was not accepted, but the next year's budget was also paralyzed. The session was adjourned and councilors met with representatives of the Regional Accounts Chamber on Thursday to discuss what to do next.
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“The President of the City of Krakow stated that he will once again submit to the City Council of Krakow a draft decision on the multi-year financial perspective with the same content as previously discussed by the Regional Control Chamber in Krakow. The form will have a new number and standard procedure. adoption, Krakow City Council President Jakub Kosek said in a statement.Councils must adopt a multi-year financial forecast on Monday, December 23.
According to the deputy head of the council, Iwona Chamielek of KO, “something happened that shouldn't have happened, but everyone is human and can make mistakes.” “I want to reassure residents that the budget is not in jeopardy and on Monday we will vote on the WPF,” he said.
Work KO “fell asleep”
However, opposition councilors say that this tragic mistake would not have happened if it were not for the attitude of politicians from the ruling coalition.
– In this haste to reject all opposition ideas, the representatives of the coalition of Dukmron threw the entire resolution into the trash. If the opposition councilors had been invited to the dialogue on the budget, this situation would not have existed, – the deputy head of the city council Lukasz Maslona from Kraków for residents told us. The leader of this club is the main opponent of Alexander Miszalski in the local elections, Lukas Gibala.
Lucas GiballaPAP/Art Service
– If the WPF is not adopted, the financing of municipal functions will be at risk, because officials do not have an official basis for disposing of funds – added Maslona. He emphasized that in the budget, councilors voted on individual tasks out of about 200 tasks proposed by PiS and KdM. In the case of WPF, all the amendments proposed by the opposing councils were lost. That is why they voted against it.
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“This is a mess, a mess,” said the deputy head of the council, Michal Drevnitsky from PiS. – President Miszalsky does not talk to the opposition advisers, he did not even appeal to us in support of these resolutions. He accepted 20 or 25 amendments of the opposition to the budget, while he also accepted 350 amendments of his advisers. If someone votes against the opposing amendment 200 times, then they can make a mistake when voting for the entire resolution, just like the three CO members. They just fell asleep, Drewnicki emphasized.
At the meeting, Alexander Miszalsky thanked the council members for the proposed reforms and assessed that most of them are justified, but they do not have the funds to implement all the projects. – Of course, the plans of economy and reforms that we are implementing will lead to the improvement of the future budget, – said the mayor of Krakow.
Will there be consequences for CO advisors?
– The leaders of the platform can only blame themselves for not being able to observe discipline in voting on the most important financial document of the city. This collapse does not bode well for the future, especially since this is only the beginning of this period of local government powers, – said Lukash Maslona.
Advisor Drevnicki announced that the politicians of this formation will once again try to pass their reforms to the WPF.
However, Councilor Grzegorz Stawowi responded that the tasks that the opposition wants to add to the WPF have not been added to the budget. – There can be no discrepancy in quantities. Budget and WPF should be like a zipper, they should fit together perfectly. This is impossible, said KO.
The head of the club of councils of the coalition said that although the voting discipline was violated by three members of the KO – Iwona Chamielek, Bogumila Drabik and Grajina Fijalkowska, he has not yet considered any consequences for the politicians. – I haven't thought about it yet. Now we want to finish the financial issues, he emphasized.
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