The Lord Mayor would allocate 1 percent of the capital's business tax revenue to alleviating the social crisis.
In a post published on his Facebook page, Gergely Karácsony recalled that he had convened a general assembly of the Association of Budapest Local Governments for Monday, at which he and the district mayors would jointly discuss the most pressing issues facing the city, identify the problems that concern Budapest’s residents most, and find resources to address them.
He listed the social crisis first, which manifests on Budapest’s public spaces partly as a public safety issue and partly as a public cleanliness issue.
“I propose that the districts and the capital jointly allocate 1 percent of the city’s business tax revenue specifically to alleviating the social crisis, and to reducing homelessness and drug use in public spaces,” he wrote.
Continuing to list the problems, he added that the catastrophic condition of the capital’s roads now endangers not only the safety of car drivers but also that of public transport and cyclists. He proposes the introduction of a unified, transparent parking system that operates at significantly lower cost, with the resulting increased profits directed toward road renovation. The capital and the districts would share the revenues on a 60–40 percent basis.
On the downsides of tourism, he stated that the tax paid by tourists goes entirely to the district councils, while the task of organising tourism and managing the tensions it generates falls to the capital. He stressed that this task cannot be carried out without funding.
The Lord Mayor also listed unaffordable property prices among the problems. He identified one of the causes as the very low number of affordable rental properties in Budapest by international standards.
In recent years, work had been done to secure separate EU funding for cities to build and renovate affordable rental housing — wrote Gergely Karácsony, adding that their lobbying had been successful, and that a highly significant rental housing construction and renovation programme worth 32 billion forints, coordinated by the capital, would soon be launched in Budapest. He proposed that this funding also be made accessible to the districts.
He believes that the budget proposal submitted by the government will bring significant financial relief not only to the capital but also to the capital’s districts: their burdens will be reduced by a total of 13 billion forints.
According to Gergely Karácsony’s summary, 2027 may be easier for every district mayor than this year has been. He described it as far more important that the government regards the local government as a partner and that an unprecedented volume of European Union development funding is coming to the city.
Artificial intelligence was used for the translation of parts of the original Hungarian text.