The Economist Martin Redrado raised the need to discuss “seriously” a plan to reduce public spending, in the midst of the discussion for the agreement with the IMF. He proposed “divide the country into six”, eliminate provincial legislatures and cut the number of ministries from 22 to 8.
The former president of the Central Bank argued that a fundamental reform is to promote unicameral legislatures in much of the country. “Why do we need provincial deputies and senators in all the provinces?”Redrado asked himself in statements to Radio Mitre.
In that sense, he said that he is working with the Capital Foundation, which he directs on a project to “regionalize” the country and advance in a major institutional modification through which several provinces have a single legislature.
Redrado mentioned, for example, that Mendoza, San Juan, San Luis and La Rioja might be grouped under a region called “New Whose”. “We should have a single parliament that works for those provinces, that works on a national development project”, he indicated.
In that sense, he completed: “Thus, instead of having legislatures throughout the country, [podríamos] divide the country into six regions and then lower spending on legislatures”.
In addition, he asked to reduce the number of advisers in the Chambers of Deputies and National Senators, an aspect that he acknowledged has been questioned for a long time.
He also referred to the number of ministries that make up the Government. “At the national level we have 22 ministries, we should have eight and function perfectly well”.
Although it is a debate that appears on a recurring basis, Redrado argued that one must “be specific” and “not stay in slogans.”
Likewise, he remarked that what is sought is “to regionalize the country” and clarified that it is part of a development plan that starts from the interior “towards the provinces, driven by regional legislatures.”
Given the agreement with the International Monetary Fund and the need to respect certain compliance goals, the director of Fundación Capital stated that the weight of the increase in rates, the revaluation of the real estate tax and inflation, “end up being paid by the middle classes and the more unprotected”. And he added: “It is necessary to work there instead of the cost of the adjustment being paid by the middle class, which are the traditional programs of the International Monetary Fund”.
The discussion regarding the size of provincial legislatures concentrate criticism for a long time due to the level of expense they represent. According to a researcher’s analysis Roberto Cachanosky, the country has a total of 1,199 provincial legislators, that is, 1 for almost 38,365 inhabitants. The average cost of each monthly provincial legislator is USD 49,046.
For the specialist, Argentina has an “overpopulation” of legislators. By way of comparison, he pointed out that the United States has 7,243 legislators in the internal system of its 50 states. It is an average of 1 legislator for every 45,561 inhabitants.
The report, shared in January on LN+, takes into account the budgets of the legislative bodies presented in 2021, divided by the number of popularly elected members. In this way, salaries plus direct and indirect expenses are included in the cost.
Tucumán is the province with the highest cost per legislator. The cost of the parliament of that province, with 49 legislators, is equivalent to almost $156,968 per month.
The city of Buenos Aires, with 60 legislators, with 101,641 dollars per legislator, is the one that ranks second, ahead of Chaco. The northern province has a cost of 100,000 dollars per month for each member of parliament.
The legislature of Buenos Aires provincelong observed by discretionary spending, is not that far from those numbers. It has a cost per legislator of $98,662.
In 2020, the governor of Mendoza, Rodolfo Suarez, proposed a constitutional reform to reduce the weight of the Legislature and migrate to a unicameral system. According to Cachanosky’s report, the cost per legislator there was $15,975.
between deputies and senators, the province has 86 legislators. In his project, the goal was to advance to a 48-member parliament.
