The reduction has been in effect for 12 years and it is time for the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP) to put an end to it. In the opinion on the state budget (OE) for 2023, submitted to the Assembly of the Republic, the association that unites almost all local authorities in the country defends the end of the 5% cut in the salary of political office holders, a legal provision that also includes local elected officials.
In an “incomprehensible and unfair way”, the proposed bill on the state budget “will go through without undoing the 5% cut in the salaries of political office holders.introduced under the program of economic and financial assistance to Portugal, at the time of the Troika, and today maintained in the remuneration of local elected officials,” writes the ANMP, chaired by the socialist Luísa Salgueiro, in the document sent to A situation that is no longer justified for the municipalities, not least because it represents an “anathema” that falls on the elected: “Having already reversed the vast majority of the measures taken at the time, it is of basic justice to put an end to this wage cut. and with this curse that befalls political office holders.”
The 5% discount that affects the gross monthly salary of politicians was introduced in 2010, still by José Sócrates. More than a decade later, it is still in effect. And this is despite the fact that the leader of the executive, António Costa, has already shown that he is in favor of reversing this measure. “I am confident that this latest cut will disappear in the next legislature. I think it is important to restore normalcy to the remuneration framework for politicians as well.”said the prime minister in the summer of 2019 in an interview with the weekly newspaper emphatically. Subsequently, Rui Rio, the then leader of the PSD, also favored ending the salary cut for holders of political positions, but the measure – which never produced the consensus of the various political forces – never moved forward.
Municipalities demand millions for costs of pandemic
In the advice approved by the ANMP on October 18, the municipalities maintain the requirement that the government pay 156 million euros for the costs incurred by the municipalities in the fight against Covid-19. It is one of the main claims of the document that, contrary to what has happened in recent years, this time it does not end with an unfavorable opinion on the state budget proposal.
The ANMP text basically begins by highlighting several positives of next year’s public accounts proposal. starting with increase of 220 million euros for municipalities to participate in state taxes, which will reach a global value of EUR 3,254 million next year. The municipalities also point to the payment of the “so rightly claimed debt settlement of 104 million euros related to the Municipal Social Fund”, referring to 2019, 2020 and 2021, to be repaid later this year, once the specific legislative process is currently completed. underway in Parliament.
After a particularly difficult year for the ANMP, which even led to Porto’s departure from the association due to disagreements over the process of decentralization of powers, the opinion positively emphasizes the “increase of 43% in the amounts to be transferred by the Decentralization Financing Fund”, which will increase to 1204 million euros in 2023. A result of the compromise agreement signed last July between the ANMP and the government for decentralization in the fields of education and health – and which emerged as a result of criticism from many mayors over the lack of financial support for the transfer of powers . As a result of the same agreement, the OE2023 enshrines the possibility that the resources from the decentralization finance fund could be strengthened, but the ANMP warns that it is “essential to provide an update mechanism with the possibility to increase the resources, to meet the real costs associated with the development of the different competences”.
In the document sent to the delegates, the ANMP reiterates another demand, which has already been sent to the Minister of Finance at a meeting prior to the delivery of the budget, and which will continue opening up the “opportunity to use the full debt capacity of the municipalities”, given the current economic and financial context. A list of demands to be repeated tomorrow by the President of the ANMP, Luísa Salgueiro, socialist who chairs the Chamber of Matosinhos, during the ANMP parliamentary hearing in the context of the work in the specialty of the OE2023.
Source: DN
