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According to the shadow prime minister, Ramūnas Karbauskis, the government’s intentions to deprive the regions of funds collected through them through environmental taxes, without creating additional opportunities, at least to lend to municipalities to receive funds from the EU, and the incompetence of the government in other regional areas. Policies are already ruining regions and will have a significant negative impact on the quality of life for people outside metropolitan areas.
“It just came to our attention then. Sometimes it seems that everything is being done specifically so that only Lithuania will sink to the bottom: from scratch, regions are destroyed, money is taken from them, regional municipalities are burdened with difficult responsibilities, Decisions are made from the top, not to mention local communities and their representatives. Seeks to close hospitals and schools. Conservatives do not even hide the wish that people cannot elect even a mayor who has broad powers and can represent the interests of ordinary people. Maybe conservatives don’t need regions at all, and they think that the whole of Lithuania is just big cities? At least that’s the impression when you see how they treat the people of the regions and what label the people who live there ”, Says R. Karbauskis.
The Shadow Government submitted proposals to the Government of I. Šimonytė: in cooperation with the Association of Municipalities of Lithuania to review the OECD recommendations to increase the financial independence of municipalities and present relevant bills, to ensure access to unused and saved state funds for delegated functions. without returning them to the state budget; Prepare and present to Seimas a bill that guarantees 100% financing for municipalities to implement the functions delegated by the state.
Also review and re-submit to Seimas the bill that guarantees compensation for municipal losses from the GPM; expand municipal borrowing opportunities, especially when borrowing is unavoidable in the implementation of EU projects; evaluate the impact of the planned tax reform on municipal budgets and abandon the plans of the Ministry of the Environment to redistribute state funds, not reduce opportunities for municipal budgets to receive revenue from taxes collected in the field of environmental protection.
The shadow government approached the president of the Seimas, Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, and urged him to prepare and register in the Seimas a bill on local self-government, which would define the functions of the mayor, maintaining the current status of the mayor both as possible before passing amendments to the Constitution. This would provide greater clarity to the Seimas and facilitate the decision on amendments to the Constitution, which only provide for the office of mayor, but do not define his status.
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