“Civil officials and public employees of Balmazújváros municipality have not received their salaries for the second month. The livelihood of more than 400 local government workers is in danger due to a pitifully small-scale political battle. They cannot do anything about the political tug-of-war, yet the government uses their negative life situation to create mood. The very modest earnings cannot always ensure even a month’s living, but now it will be the second month without payment,” wrote the outgoing independent mayor of Balmazújváros, Péter Hegedüs, and the Union of Hungarian Civil Servants, Public Employees and Public Service Workers in their statement and petition. From October, Varga Marina of Fidesz-KDNP will take over the leadership of the settlement.
Violins a petition was handed over on Tuesday to the Ministry of Public Administration and Regional Development. Deputy Minister Csaba Latorcai responded to all of this: the government has nothing to do with the conflict in Balmazújváros, the mayor should go home and solve the problem.
What is it about?
Quite complicated situation was established in Balmazújváros in the Hajdú-Bihar county in the past period.
- The representative body did not adopt the 2024 budget on time, i.e. by the March 15 deadline. In addition, the financial report for 2023 was not created by the deadline of May 31.
- According to the mayor, Péter Hegedüs, the board “functions dysfunctionally”.
- Tibor Navracsics’s Ministry of Public Administration and Territorial Development therefore suspended the financing of the municipality.
- The mayor then took advantage of a legal loophole to create these two decrees on his own on June 10. For the mayors during the transitional period until October they have a chance to make decrees alone, if the board is unable to make a decision on the same issue twice in a row.
- On the other hand, the government office disputes that the mayor created these two decrees legally.
- The case is now before the Court, and the ministry is waiting for the decision. Until then, no money will be given to Balmazújváros.
- According to the city management, however, they are insolvent and cannot pay, for example, the salaries of the health workers, kindergartens, nurseries and the nursing home employees, roughly 400 workers.
- Not only because another case is taking place at the same time: 420 million forints were collected from the municipality’s account due to a 2016 gas engine project deal.
What does the municipality say?
According to the local government, the whole case is a “show of power”, which “primarily benefits the city’s local government employees and their families, whose livelihoods are at risk”. But it is also possible that in the longer term “employees will quit, the maintenance of institutions will become impossible, kindergartens, nurseries, nursing homes, health services, and the office may become inoperable.”
Mayor Péter Hegedüs called the situation “political murder” called itand also about “intentional damage”. spoke.
According to him, a “6:6 deadlock” had developed in the city council, they could not come up with a budget plan together. In Balmazújváros, the board consists of twelve representatives, half of which, that is, six, are from Fidesz. “Until the last moments, until May 2024, the 6 blocking representatives prevented the city from accessing the rightful state net funding without substantial reasons and in a way that violated the law. There is no need to beautify: all meaningful work related to the operation and development of the city has been hindered” – he wrote about it on Facebook.
The mayor, on the other hand, claims that he acted legally when he created the budget decree alone. According to his claim, so does the Court he announced with him in July that the decrees passed by him should be considered valid until they are declared invalid or annulled. Despite this, according to his claim, they are asking the government for the money in vain, but they have not received it since then. And he called this illegal, since according to him the city does not have an invalidated budget.
“Balmazújváros is not bankrupt, but they are considered bankrupt,” said the mayor, who said that if the ministry would give them the money owed to them – about HUF 500 million – then they would be able to pay the back wages.
What does the government say?
The Ministry of Public Administration and Regional Development responded to the situation with a short statement on Tuesday. In it, they wrote that “the mayor of Balmazújváros is responsible for the fact that municipal workers in the settlement do not receive salaries”, and despite the fact that the city has a legally approved budget, the Kúria has not yet decided on this issue. Until then, “the financing of the settlement must be suspended”.
According to the ministry, they cannot do anything other than “take note of the mayor’s decision that he is not willing to cooperate with the representative body and legally create the budget of Balmazújváros”. But they promise that as soon as the city has a legally accepted budget and final accounts, it will also receive its net funding retroactively.
The joint petition of the mayor and the trade union was received on Tuesday by the deputy minister Tibor Navracsics, Csaba Latorcai. The deputy minister said here that this is a local conflict, “the solution can also be realized locally”, the government has nothing to do with it. “I asked the mayor to go home,” said Latorcai, who said that the simplest solution would be for the mayor to “pass the budget legally and regularly” together with the council. According to him, all obstacles would be removed immediately. Meanwhile, he also admitted that the mayor really has the right to decide on his own if such a situation exists.
What does the Court say?
The ministry is therefore waiting for the decision of the Court for the time being. Although there is still a break in the courts for a few weeks, the Kúria wrote to Telex that they have four cases before them regarding the budget situation in Balmazújváros – but they did not specify exactly what these four cases were.
“In the meantime, the Deputy President of the Court ordered an emergency in all cases. Currently, none of the motions have been evaluated. The Municipal Council of the Kúria will examine the motions this month, and if the legal conditions for the assessment are met, it may also make a decision,” they wrote.
What money was collected?
In parallel with the budgetary complications, another matter also complicates the finances.
In 2016, the city’s then Fidesz leadership concluded a support contract with the Ministry of National Economy for the implementation of a gas engine project. The point of this was to provide heating and electricity to public buildings by using thermal water. Although one of the conditions of the program was that only 100 percent state or municipal property could be included in it, the city stadium was also included. In 2019, 34 percent of the stadium finally came under the control of the municipality, and then it was sold two years later, in 2021, to the Balmazújváros Football Club.
The Hungarian Treasury considered the transaction to be irregular, and therefore obliged the local government to repay the entire subsidy amount, i.e. a total of HUF 427 million, together with late interest. This amount was collected from the municipality’s account.
It doesn’t get any easier
It is not the first time that Balmazújváros has had problems with the budget. Even last year, the board was unable to accept the budget and the final accounts, and the state suspended the subsidies even then. Then the county mayor issued a decree to resolve the situation.
The city will not be in an easier situation from October 1. Although the candidate of Fidesz, Marina Varga, defeated the current mayor, Péter Hegedüs, with 50.22 percent of the vote, who obtained 44.95 percent of the votes in the colors of the Köösen Balmazújvárosért Egyesület, but the final result remains the same 6:6 in the board.
