On 8 September this year, the first City Council session after the summer break was held, with a very extensive agenda. One of the more important topics was a debate on the implementation of the city budget for the first half of 1992 and a report on the implementation of the city’s socio-economic tasks.
The agenda also included information on the activities of closed and open healthcare facilities, information on the operation of the Municipal Communal Services Company, and information on the functioning of trade in the city over the last two years, including privatization. A separate item on the agenda concerned councillors’ interpellations and questions. The session lasted more than six hours, and the materials from the meeting would have been enough for several issues of our “Głos”. Readers must therefore forgive me for limiting this brief report to budget matters, while promising to return to some of the more important issues in other editions of our publication. The city’s 1992 budget plan (after the June adjustments) amounts to PLN 47,412,197 thousand on the revenue side and PLN 58,263,454 thousand on the expenditure side. (The difference is covered by the surplus generated last year.)
The implementation of the budget in the first half of the year was as follows: the budget revenue plan was fulfilled at 54.6 percent (of which own revenues were realized at 55.4 percent). The expenditure plan after amendments was implemented at 41.1 percent. A positive development is the fact that such budgetary units as the Municipal Communal Services Company and the Municipal Transport Company are striving to be largely self-sufficient (through savings, improved work organization, seeking sources of income, etc.). Education and healthcare are in a difficult situation. As ZOZ director Jan Hałubiec reported, in order to obtain funds for the operation of the Hospital, 70 positions were eliminated; nurses and orderlies were required to pay for meals provided during their shifts; and during the most difficult months (January and February), bonus payments had to be significantly reduced, and even completely suspended. The hospital will achieve considerable savings by changing its heating system from coal-fired to gas-fired.
When assessing the feasibility of carrying out socio-economic tasks in the second half of 1992, it was determined that most of the material tasks scheduled for implementation would have budgetary coverage.
The session adopted a resolution introducing changes to the city budget, allocating an additional PLN 3 billion 491 million for pay adjustments in the budgetary sector, as well as for meeting other needs of all budgetary units.