Image Advertising - The party of business is against the interminable futile debates

The party of business is against the interminable futile debates

Lider - Burgas supports the estimates for 2012
The concessions and public-private partnerships are the only way to attract investments

Lider - Burgas supports the estimates of Burgas municipality for 2012, submitted by the Mayor Dimitar Nikolov and subjected to endless debates in the local parliament on February 21. "We are realists. We believe that despite the tensions in the revenue of the budget, the general framework of 155,656,378 BGN is feasible," said before the debates Dimitar Kolev, Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee on Budget and Finance and Regional Coordinator of Lider - Burgas.

The worries Dimitar Kolev shared during the discussions of the budget in the committees are, that in 2011 the municipality has failed to collect the set fees for kindergartens and in the budget for 2012 is envisaged the same amount to be collected for this activity. The municipal administration expects this year to accumulate more funds because of the voted minimum threshold for attendance in the kindergartens. According to the coordinator of Lider however, the failure to collect money provided, is due not only to objective but to subjective reasons too. The majority of the local parliament has no interest to oppress the taxpayers, because they will turn away from it. So Kolev considers a wider campaign is necessary to announce and explain the decisions concerning local taxes. The Lider members run business in different cities and can compare the tax burden on their residents. The per mil for garbage collection fee in Burgas, for example, is higher than in many other cities. But here is built an orderly system for accounting the waste management activities and in actual fact, the population pays less.

Lider stands behind every constructive proposal submitted for discussion in the City Council of Burgas. The party supported the widely discussed and loudly rejected by the opposition strategy for management of municipal property for the period 2012 - 2014. As representatives of a party professing the right politics, the Lider advisers consider that in the times of economic crisis, the concessions are the most appropriate form of investment attraction. Through them, the municipality does not lose its property, while providing conditions for business development. The construction of Park "Ezero" (Bulgarian for "Lake") and wind farms, requires huge investments, the municipality has no where to take from at this point. It can't undertake their management too. The only possible way for now to stimulate investments is through concession. It is expected, the adoption of the law on public-private partnership to open new opportunities for attracting private investments. But then, according to Dimitar Kolev, the fruitless debates in the Burgas City Council about possible circles of companies, shills and lobby interests will become truly endless.

At the meeting of the Municipal Council on Tuesday Lider supported too the proposal to support the "in vitro" procedures with 150,000 BGN. Dimitar Kolev said, it remains unclear how it will be assessed which of the people using these funds are really in need - not as a reproductive functions but as financial resources. According to him, there are people in Burgas who could deal with this problem with own finances. It is therefore necessary a precise methodology by which to assess. The municipal council should be given the opportunity to control the expenditure of these funds.

02/21/2012