The budget of Sofia for 2025 adopted by the Sofia City Council has expenditures of 2.9 billion leva. Apart from the fact that this is an absolute record (as is the size of the state budget for this year), the adopted budget does not differ in terms of logic and policies from the budgets of the capital municipality in the previous ten years. What is the situation with the state budget, by the way. This is commented on by "Blue Bulgaria" and add:
Mayor Terziev returned the budget to Sofia not because it lacks reform policies, because it does not address a single serious problem of the city, or because it is in practice “more of the same”, only with 300 million leva more, but because the Municipal Council removed some of his proposed minor repairs and replaced them with others preferred by the majority of municipal councilors.
Sofia needs a new logic in constructing the municipal budget. Logic based on:
1) determining priority problems to solve – this is a matter of political goals and a vision for the development of the city
2) planning their solution with priority participation of private operators and investments, and not with municipal funds
3) directing limited municipal funds to financing those priority activities and investments that cannot be undertaken by private operators and investors
4) limiting budget financing for municipal commercial companies and replacing such financing with private investments in these companies (privatization)
5) refusal to budget revenues from fines and sanctions – this should be an occasional income, and not a set budget item, the implementation of which should be a priority for the administration
6) using the fiscal mechanisms of the municipality (setting various fees) not simply as sources of revenue, but as levers for modeling desired behavior or limiting unwanted behavior – this is also a matter of political goals and a vision for the development of the city
Nothing of the kind is being proposed by the mayor's administration or by the majority in the Sofia Municipal Council. Returning the budget is a chance to (re)start the political discussion on the budget in essence. The councilors from Blue Bulgaria have already requested such a discussion with their declaration on new principles and policies in the management of the Sofia Municipality from 2025. We expect the mayor and the other groups in the Sofia Municipal Council to engage with opinions on our proposals so that this normal logic of political goal-setting can be embedded in the preparation of the budget of the city of Sofia. This is the way to achieve the real results and visible changes expected by the citizens of the capital.