Autumn is officially here, and we all know what that means… it’s lottery time.
Which school will be closed next? What bus route will be canceled? Which service for the elderly will be cut? Head to your municipality website and find out the (probably not so good) news.
While the state talks about having more money in the Treasury than accounted for, most municipalities are getting a black belt in the so-called “savings” exercise. Gone are the days when they could talk about next year’s budget as an opportunity to bring another idea to life; now budget talks have become a nightmare for the local politicians. Why? Simply put, municipalities need more money to run the welfare services we are used to than they are able to collect from taxes.
True, this is not an image that applies to every municipality. Not everyone is suffering. Some municipalities are talking about lowering their taxes and investing in various new ideas. Why? They have more people that pay income taxes.
As you can imagine, without a proper system of wealth redistribution, large inequalities can appear between the municipalities. Unfortunately, the current system is not properly functioning, and the level, quality, and coverage of welfare services differ significantly between municipalities.
Local governments are responsible for most welfare services (childcare, schools, elderly care, and infrastructure, to name a few) and are supposed to be mostly self-financed from tax collection. That’s why we have different income tax levels depending on the municipality we live in. Poorer municipalities tend to have higher tax levels, while the rich ones can afford to keep it low.
It’s no wonder that 50 out of the 98 mayors have recently sent an open letter to the government to ask to reform the way welfare services are financed. Rich municipalities should contribute to the budgets of poor municipalities to ensure equality in welfare services. Or at least the state should cover the difference. Leaving rural, small municipalities that have a disproportionate amount of dependents (elderly, children) to fend for themselves will only lead to their bankruptcy in the long run.
Thank you for reading and sharing Last Week in Denmark!
P.S. Don’t forget you have local and regional political rights (voting, running for office) in Denmark. As a European citizen, you have access from day one, and as a non-European, after four years.
