The Karácsonys inherited a savings of 214 billion, and by the end of the summer the deficit of 90 billion could "come together" - the latter was acknowledged by the city administration itself in a letter written by Deputy Mayor Ambrus Kiss to the Ministry of Finance in March and obtained by Mandiner. Of course, the government is expected to avoid insolvency.

Briefly and firstly, it can be deduced from this that Budapest was really steered into a situation close to bankruptcy by its management, and during the summer it may have a liquidity problem that it cannot solve alone. So total insolvency is a real danger.

As is known, in April Mayor Gergely Karácsony announced at an extraordinary press conference that

the capital cannot pay several different taxes into the central budget, amounting to around five to ten billion forints, they are asking the tax authority to reschedule them. At the same time, the solidarity tax is questioned, it is not considered legal. He emphasized: a lawsuit will be filed in the administrative court to reduce the amount of the solidarity contribution.

In response to this, Finance Minister Mihály Varga explained: the financial situation of the capital is threatened by the irresponsible and wasteful management carried out since 2019. Looking at the details, the Ministry of Finance explained: the city administration inherited HUF 214 billion in savings from the municipality led by István Tarlós: HUF 82 billion in short-term government bonds, HUF 77 billion in long-term government bonds, HUF 48 billion in cash, and HUF 7 billion in the capital's institutions.

According to the ministry, the left-wing city administration has replenished Budapest's financial reserves.

They added: the capital's business tax revenues are expected to exceed HUF 271 billion this year, and Budapest will receive an additional HUF 46 billion in support from the budget. Together, the two items exceed HUF 317 billion, which is HUF 130 billion more than the 2019 figure. Deputy Mayor Ambrus Kiss stated several times that the reserves were depleted due to, among other things, the economic crisis, the Covid epidemic, the increase in energy prices due to Russian aggression, and, in his opinion, the increase in government deductions.

Mandiner pointed out that

according to the data provided by the capital, the Budapest budget could already be in the red by HUF 60 billion in July, and HUF 86 billion in August.

Forás: Mandiner / Hungarian Nation

Cover photo: Photo: MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák