Budapest
The capital is being led into bankruptcy under Mayor Gergely Karácsony, while Budapest is benefiting enormously from the local trade tax. The pro-government daily newspaper “Magyar Nemzet” had experts analyze economic figures that support this statement.
The Nézőpont Institute showed that the capital’s revenue from the local business tax (IPA) is expected to be 85% higher this year than in 2019, the last year in office of Mayor István Tarlós. Mayor Gergely Karácsony’s predecessor was recently able to work with around 165 billion forints, the left-liberal city leadership already had around 100 billion forints more at its disposal last year, and this might even amount to a good 300 billion forints this year.
More than a thousand billion forints
Calculated over the five-year cycle, Budapest was and is allowed to generate more than 1,050 billion forints (at the current exchange rate just under 2.7 billion euros) from its most important source of income. (The capital’s total IPA revenue will climb to 560 billion forints in 2024, but 46% of the total amount is due to the municipalities.) The Nézőpont Institute has also determined that no other Hungarian country has had such a dynamic increase of 85% in IPA revenue city can be recorded at the same time. Nevertheless, the left-liberal city leadership felt compelled to pass a savings package of 25 billion forints in 2023 in order to avoid having to declare bankruptcy.
Tiny hints
The “Magyar Nemzet” wanted to use these figures to prove that Budapest is in bad hands under the left. However, for a more realistic view, a reputable research institute would have examined not only the revenue but also the cost development. The Nézőpont Institute meekly limited itself to pointing out inflation. However, not a word was mentioned regarding factors such as the solidarity tax, with which the Orbán government is skimming around 200 billion forints from the rich capital in this cycle in order to have more money for rural areas. This tax alone has increased tenfold since István Tarlós was in office.
Even more money for propaganda purposes
However, you can also put the almost 1,100 billion forints of local trade tax into a completely different perspective, as Mayor Gergely Karácsony did recently. Accordingly, the government has spent a total of 1,360 billion forints on propaganda purposes since 2015. This sum even exceeds the IPA revenues of the rich capital, albeit spread over a longer period of time.
#left #mismanagement