Before the vote on the draft resolution concerning next year’s budget, the heads of the City Council’s caucuses presented their views on it. Dariusz Filistyński of Forum stressed that the budget is pro-citizen. He added: “Heartfelt thanks for such a beautiful budget for the city’s residents.”
Ariel Fecyk of the Local Government Platform announced that PS councillors would vote in favour of the budget. “There will be a lot of investment; I wish both myself and the residents that it succeeds,” the caucus leader noted. “I always get moved when people say that public transport will be free.”
Meanwhile, Zdzisław Abramowicz, chairman of the Bolesławiec Land and Law and Justice councillors’ caucus, said briefly: “The caucus will vote in favour of the budget.”
Dariusz Mucha, an opposition councillor, referred during the discussion preceding the vote to a quotation from the mayor: “In Poland, more and more cities are deciding to create a civic budget.” “Are we forgetting about the civic budget?” D. Mucha asked. “I would not want this to sound like any kind of criticism.”
He added: “If we manage to complete 60 percent of the planned tasks, we will already be happy.”
“The civic budget is a Polish phenomenon. Different cities approach it differently. Sometimes it is an attempt to follow a trend. I know there have also been cases of falsifying votes,” Piotr Roman replied. “The ruling party includes civic budgets among municipalities’ tasks. We are waiting for specifics. I expected this question. And I agree. We can give it a try.”
He stressed: “I believe that in the case of municipalities such as ours, the entire budget is civic.”
City councillors adopted the draft 2018 budget unanimously.