It was submitted by Gergely Karácsony, and thanks to the Magyar-Gyurcsány Pact, the majority of the assembly accepted the 2025 budget of the Budapest Metropolitan Municipality, thus providing evidence for the assumption that these forces are from the same political party, the Center for Fundamental Rights wrote in its analysis.
The mayor entitled the proposal "Budget for the protection of self-determination", but it does little to protect Budapest's self-determination, rather it excuses or fills the gaping void caused by the irresponsible management of the last 5 years and the often senseless budget expenditures with the devoted assistance of the Tisza Party, he points out. the analysis.
"Before revealing the details of the budget, it is worth clarifying: Gergely Karácsony adopted a budget that violates the law, as the Metropolitan Municipality declared that it does not want to pay the 50 billion forints due to the poorer settlements, the so-called solidarity contribution. However, the current legislation stipulates that a municipality cannot plan in its budget to pay a lower tax rate than that prescribed by law," he reminds Fundamental Rights.
It is necessary to point out that not all, but only the wealthier municipalities – 848 this year – pay solidarity contributions. Numerically, this represents a quarter of the Hungarian settlements, taking into account the fact that the support of the poorer settlements is a problem for the richest city in the country, the capital, which is quite peculiar, rejecting solidarity from the head.
According to the analysis of Alapjogokért, the mayor's approach becomes truly outrageous in the light of the fact that in the previous term he employed an average of 40 consultants per year, in the summer of 2024 he paid HUF 200 million in bonuses, and in the year before that he paid HUF 300 million in premiums, and left-wing lawyers hired hundreds of millions - in cash - in the so-called bridging money scandal.
In addition, Gergely Karácsony did not support the proposal of the government faction of the new Capital Assembly, which would have involved a reduction in the number of committees, committee seats and positions serving as paying positions.
The analysis emphasizes: as far as the details of the 2025 budget are concerned, based on the accepted proposal, the capital management expects to receive HUF 422 billion 544 million in revenue, within which the Capital Municipality will receive 5.5 percent more support from the central budget compared to 2024. In contrast, Gergely Karácsony plans to spend HUF 426 billion 269 million in 2025. More correctly, Kiss Ambrus, who according to the mayor is an indispensable person for the financial planning of the Budapest Metropolitan Municipality and, in the absence of an agreement, currently performs his duties as deputy mayor within the framework of the position of director general. The Budapest management is therefore planning a deficit of 3 billion 724 million forints for next year, which, as in previous years, they intend to cover by using the remaining small balance and by canceling previously committed bank deposits.
"At this point, it is worth mentioning that the legacy of István Tarlós' mayoralty (a "small" amount of 220 billion freely usable Hungarian forints) is long gone, despite the fact that Gergely Karácsony has a much larger income than his predecessor. Budapest's budget revenue in 2019 was HUF 266 billion, while in 2025 it is planned to reach HUF 422 billion, which represents a 53 percent increase".
Despite all of this, Budapest Metropolitan Municipality intends to spend 46 billion 780 million forints on personal benefits in 2025, which represents a 19.5 percent increase compared to 2024 - the analysis points out, adding that: in the meantime, according to the approved draft, the 2025 sales revenue of Budapest companies, spent on climate protection tasks that are Gergely Karácsony's vessőparipa and already in 2024, the amount will decrease from HUF 164 million, which is considered negligible compared to the size of the budget, to HUF 112 million in 2025.
Since its launch in 2020, the capital's community budget is only a step away from realizing the utopian vision envisioned five years ago. During the past 4 years, the Metropolitan Municipality announced the community budget in 3 rounds, where instead of the 3 billion forints made available in advance, the plans have been implemented in the amount of only 1 billion 140 million forints.
The shortcomings of the budget are topped by the general assembly decision to maintain the current account credit line of 60 billion, in connection with which Kiss Ambrus himself previously stated: if the Capital Assembly had not voted on the credit line, all the money could have been used up in Budapest's bank account as early as January 2. The amounts of interest income and bank deposits are decreasing year by year, while interest expenses and the amounts spent on repaying loans are increasing year by year. In 2025, the Budapest Municipality will spend HUF 7 billion 446 million to repay its loans, in addition to the fact that the general reserve will not change compared to HUF 2 billion in 2024. This is the budget of bankruptcy - concludes the analysis of Fundamental Rights.
Cover image: The meeting of the Capital Assembly in the hall of the City Hall. Opposite Mayor Gergely Karácsony (k), next to him Ambrus Kiss, Director General of the Office of the Mayor (b) and Chief Clerk Tamás Számadó (j).
Source: MTI/Róbert Hegedüs
