Government county commissioner tells Budapest Mayor Karácsony to ‘comply with law’
The government commissioner of Budapest has told the city’s mayor, Gergely Karácsony, to comply with the law and desist from pushing through an “unlawful budget”.
Government commissioner calls on Karácsony
Botond Sára said in a video uploaded to Facebook that Karácsony should refrain from pressing ahead with his “next unlawful measure”, accusing him of working to push an “unlawful budget” through the city assembly, saying “he doesn’t want to pay the 50 billion forints” [EUR 121.3m] in solidarity tax “that poorer localities are entitled to”.
“This is no solution to the municipality’s plight, which is close to insolvency,” Sára said. He said Karácsony was “playing for time” and this would worsen the city’s already difficult situation. “Of course, we will challenge [any] unlawful decision.”
In response, Karácsony said in a post on Facebook that a government office challenge against the Budapest budget would put the municipality’s operations at risk.
“This means, no less, that the government wants to force the city into insolvency,” he said.
He said the government office was running afoul of a municipal court decision that said “over-taxing Budapest is tantamount to confiscation”. “The government insists on taxes which the Constitutional Court has said are contrary to the right of local authorities to financial autonomy enshrined in Hungary’s Fundamental Law,” he said.
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