I call on Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev and the Chairman of the Sofia Municipal Council (SOC) Tsvetomir Petrov to return the budget today or on Monday at the latest for a revote. This is stated in the position of Vanya Grigorova, a municipal councilor from the "BSP for Bulgaria", published on her Facebook page.
Earlier today, Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev announced that he would return the SOC's decision on the city's 2025 budget for review due to illegality and inexpediency.
The decisions from the last session of the SOC were published last night. It is evident that there is a difference of 3.5 million leva between revenues and expenditures. I understand Mr. Terziev's stubbornness and the request for a return for a revote, so that he can act like a victim for a while longer, even though the victims of his budget version are hospitals, DCCs and transport companies, writes Griorova. According to her, however, there is no legal text that obliges municipal budgets to have equal revenues and expenses every year. The only article of the Public Finance Act that touches on the topic is Art. 30, and it states that "the medium-term goal for the budget balance of the municipality, calculated on a cash basis, is adherence to a balanced budget balance", notes the municipal councilor. Medium-term and that "goal" is within three years. Not every year. That is, municipal budgets may have a surplus, they may have a deficit. Therefore, the budget in its current form is not illegal, Grigorova points out.
According to her, the delay in returning the budget means that teachers in the Sofia Municipality will not receive their increased salaries from January. The money comes from the state budget, but will not be paid until the municipal budget is adopted, transport workers will not receive their increased salaries this month either; hospitals will not receive their money for medical activities already carried out since the beginning of the year under contracts with the Sofia Municipality, Grigorova writes.
If Terziev returns the budget today or on Monday, there is a possibility that it will be reviewed and voted on at a session on Thursday (June 12). However, the intentions that I have heard are to do so later next week, so that the re-voting will remain until the next session of the Municipal Council on June 26, the municipal councilor notes. According to her, this would be an insult to a number of sectors, their employees and a blockage of work on various investment projects. Amounts already owed to contractors will not be paid, and the image of the Sofia Municipality as an incorrect payer will deepen.