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The Oslo City Council’s budget proposal is heavily influenced by the corona epidemic.
To achieve the goal of being able to test 5 percent of the population per week, which is equivalent to 35,000 tests, two billion crowns have been reserved.
Raymond Johansen also says that several election promises, including school meals for Oslo school students, are postponed due to uncertainty surrounding the municipality’s finances.
The plague takes freedom
– Unfortunately, this is not the time to implement important electoral promises. So we put off some big promises like school meals. It is a direct consequence of the crown and a priority that we must take, city council leader Raymond Johansen (Labor) tells Dagbladet.
Shock increase
In Oslo, there is so-called resident parking in much of the city, where you pay an annual price for street parking if you live in the area.
Next year, the city council proposes to increase the price of fossil cars from NOK 3,600 to NOK 5,400. For electric cars, the price increases by 50 percent from 600 to 900 crowns.
The price of parking in the yellow zone will also have a strong price jump, according to the city council’s budget proposal.
The hourly rate to park a fossil car will increase by 25 percent a year in both 2021 and 2022, according to the city council’s plan.
In 2022, it will cost 50 crowns an hour to park a fossil car in the yellow zone.
For electric cars, the price will go from NOK 6 per hour in 2021 to NOK 8 per hour in 2022.
The prices of public transport tickets remain unchanged, in the budget proposal of the City Council.
The City Council also reserves NOK 120 million in climate subsidies for individuals and businesses.
More unemployed, less income
The council parties Arbeiderpartiet, SV and MDG do not have a majority and will seek a majority with Rødt.
– I have never been involved in creating a more demanding budget. It has been almost impossible. We don’t know what Oslo and the world will be like in 2021, says Johansen.
The budget comes amid an outbreak of corona infection in Oslo. Yesterday, the infection increased by 55 and only one district is below the red level limit.
– We do not know what costs we will get and what income we will lose. Managing the crown alone will cost billions of dollars, says Johansen.
He notes that revenues are plummeting in various areas for the municipality. Unemployment is 34,000, three times more than a year ago.
– Our goal is to get Oslo safely through the pandemic. The population also expects us to do so.
– Development must stop
Expensive promise from the right
In the middle of the budget request at the Oslo City Council, Raymond Johansen received the news that the national meeting of the Conservatives is in favor of eliminating all wealth tax in the next legislature.
It causes him a lot.
– While municipalities across the country struggle in an extremely demanding situation, conservatives are in favor of eliminating the wealth tax, which is one of the most important sources of income for municipalities. This will be one of the most expensive election promises next year, says Johansen.
The wealth tax is divided into two parts. There is a wealth tax of 0.15 percent for the state and 0.7 percent for the municipality where the person resides. The lower deduction is 1.5 million.
The wealth tax money is absolutely crucial for Oslo, and many other municipalities, Johansen notes.
– For Oslo, the wealth tax is NOK 3.2 billion. One in three crowns of municipal wealth tax in Norway is paid in Oslo. This corresponds to 4,000 teachers, nurses and other employees and constitutes a large proportion of our leeway, says Johansen.
– When conservatives propose this, I wonder what planet they are on at the moment.
