One of the items on the agenda of the April session of Bolesławiec City Council was a vote on a draft resolution “on the issue of municipal bonds and the rules for their sale, purchase and redemption”. Before the vote, however, Mayor Piotr Roman spent around 30 minutes trying to convince the councillors that the resolution was worth adopting. “Housing needs are absolutely fundamental in the hierarchy of needs affecting residents, especially people starting families,” he noted. “In Bolesławiec, the housing shortage is still considerable. We hoped that developers would build flats here, but it is clear that even those who have built them are having problems selling them. In recent years, Bolesławiec has built, among other things, social housing units. Our largest investment, ISPA, led to a large number of plots being provided with utilities. The activities of the Social Housing Association, which was established to construct buildings, were a separate matter. But in the case of the TBS, the possibility of continuing its previous activities has practically come to an end, because the PO and PSL government abolished the housing fund, and today everything is based on commercial loans.”
“Today we can make a decision on another economic stimulus: the construction of 120 flats,” the mayor continued. “Bolesławiec is one of several hundred cities in Poland that have experienced an exodus of residents to the outskirts. Four thousand people have disappeared from Bolesławiec. What is more, the best taxpayers are leaving. A city that had 44,000 residents now has fewer than 40,000. We must halt this trend, because it affects tax revenues. It is estimated on average that one resident pays around PLN 3,000 in tax, so if 4,000 residents of Bolesławiec now live outside the city, PLN 12 million has disappeared from the city budget. And it was the wealthiest who moved away.”
“Please remember that around 500 people who move into the newly built flats will be new taxpayers,” Piotr Roman stressed. He added: “I believe that anyone who votes against issuing the bonds is voting against the construction of housing. Next year, we will no longer be able to do this. Minister Rostowski is putting such a restraint on local governments that soon taking out any loan will be virtually impossible. We, meanwhile, are prepared for this undertaking and have a good, experienced company—TBS. The residents of Bolesławiec elected me; they elected my committee. Our election programme put the construction of 300 flats first. We have already built 80.”
The floor was taken by Zdzisław Abramowicz, head of the Bolesławiec Land councillors’ group: “I was somewhat hurt by the statement that if someone votes against this resolution, they will be voting against the construction of housing. It is not at all that clear-cut. No one who understands society’s housing needs would say, ‘I don’t care.’ I do not believe that someone who has doubts about the bonds is an enemy of expanding the housing stock. But all these debt repayments, planned over 12 years, amount to extending the obligations well beyond the existence of this council. I will abstain.”
Speaking in a similar vein was Mirosław Sakowski, chairman of the Civic Platform councillors’ group: “PO councillors support the development of housing construction, but we believe that the money should be found in the city budget. We should save enough to be able to build housing with our own funds. We will vote against this resolution.”
Wojciech Kasprzyk, an independent councillor, held a different view. “When I saw the agenda for this session, I was devastated,” he said. “But I analysed a great deal of information about bonds and, after many conversations with competent people, concluded that this decision was right. We councillors are the residents’ elected representatives; we must create places where they can live and reside with dignity.”
Jarosław Kowalski, head of the Forum group, also joined the discussion: “Renovations of municipal educational facilities have mostly been completed, the construction of sports infrastructure has been completed, the cultural centre and cinema have been built, the economic zone has been completed, and the plots have been provided with utilities. I believe the time has come to seriously address housing and construction.”
Despite the controversy, the Council adopted the resolution with 13 votes in favour. The municipal authorities will issue 10,500 bonds for a total of PLN 10.5 million. The bond issue is intended to finance the planned budget deficit for 2012 associated with investment projects in the area of housing.
(information: ii)