The Budget Approved

On the morning of 31 January, a joint meeting of the standing committees of the Rēzekne City Council was convened, at which the councillors were introduced to the municipality’s 2019 budget. In the afternoon, at the regular council meeting, whose agenda was supplemented with several items, including the approval of the municipality’s budget for the current year, councillor Jāzeps Korsaks proposed removing the item concerning approval of the municipal budget from the agenda, as insufficient time had been allowed for discussing it and putting forward proposals. His proposal did not receive the support of the ruling majority. Twelve of the 13 councillors participated in the council meeting; I. Lucijanovs did not attend.

It should be noted that both at the morning meeting of the standing committees and at the council meeting itself, the three opposition councillors had many questions, for example: why the budget for the “Open Place” festival was one hundred thousand euros, supposedly almost as large as the entire annual budget of the Tourism Development Centre; whether the “Open Place” “pod faņeru” with retro carpets was the festival, the event, that positioned Rēzekne as a European city; why the budget of the municipality’s publication “Rēzeknes Vēstnesis” increased every year; why everyday problems in the city were not being addressed—street lighting, the condition of pavements, visual presentation—with only megaprojects taking centre stage; questions about loans whose principal repayments were to begin this year, and so on. Councillor Juris Guntis Vjakse expressed his view that he would like to be present when important municipal matters were discussed, and that every councillor should be given the opportunity to express his or her opinion in the municipal publication, but… one could only admire the head of the municipality, who had mastered the skill of turning every less welcome or unwelcome question or remark upside down, responding to each and everyone. Thus, council chair A. Bartaševičs, for example, said that he regretted councillors judged the city by the number of lights; that the opposition councillors’ budget proposals had not been properly formatted; that, unfortunately, it was impossible to include in the budget a proposal that pensioners should walk along the streets; that things would be as the councillors voted, and that the outcome of the vote was clear (the ruling majority had nine of the 13 councillors); that this was politics—some were “deeper into the subject”, but if opposition councillors so greatly wished to participate and wanted to be part of the team, they were welcome to join, and so on.

As a result, with nine councillors voting in favour, two—I. Groce and J. Korsaks—voting against, and one—J. G. Vjakse—abstaining, the Rēzekne municipality’s 2019 budget was approved.