When the capital grew. He had to buy high taxes for Greater Prague
The wrongs of the past, committed in Prague by the unwilling “foreign monarchy”, have been atoned for. Roughly this content was found in headlines published on newspapers dated February 6, 1920.
In the parliament, a discussion about the laws connected with the establishment of Greater Prague was squeezed between the negotiations on the premium state loan and the debate on the nationalization of vocational women’s schools.
What has failed for several decades has been voted on in a few tens of minutes.
The new metropolis of the republic* Greater Prague has become a reality January 1, 1922. * In 1922 it was introduced i title mayor The capital city of Prague. * It lived on 171.6 square kilometers 676 657 resident. * The metropolis had 13 circuits. * In 1922, she married Prague loans for further development in the US and the UK, these funds have stabilized municipal enterprises. * It originated in the interwar era of Greater Prague 23 000 new houses, 40 percent of which were family houses in Ořechovka and Spořilov. * Prague experienced the biggest construction boom at the time 1927–1929. |
“The expansion of Prague has been planned since 1849,” explains Linda Nová from the archives of the capital city of Prague. “At that time, Smíchov and Karlín were being considered. However, these municipalities radically rejected it themselves, “he continues, adding that they did not change their opinion until thirty years later, in the 1980s.
They applied for the connection together with Žižkov, Královské Vinohrady and Holešovice – Bubny. “The reason was simple, they needed to introduce water and gas,” adds Nová.
However, even these expansions were far from the birth of Greater Prague, which Czech politicians blamed on the Vienna government. That is why they mentioned the headlines mentioned in the introduction. However, the attitudes of the current Prague councilors, who argued for higher taxes, were also to blame.
The Greater Prague project came on the agenda again after the birth of the republic. According to a law approved by a comfortable majority, a total of 38 municipalities were to expand the eight existing districts of the capital of the republic.
“However, it is still necessary to provide a financial basis for the large, enormous tasks that await our city,” said National Democrat MP Vladimír Fáček, one of the creators of the draft.
The great tasks for ordinary citizens of the municipalities in the rings from Bohnice to Zátiší u Zátiší u meant support for the increase of various taxes and benefits. There was a significant disproportion between the higher taxes paid by the inhabitants of future Prague districts and the levies paid by the inhabitants of the original Prague.
Digits that will have to be paid in the metropolis soon were discussed in pubs and in the village square. For example, the fee for dogs should have jumped from the current 20 crowns to 50 crowns. For example, paving was counted. “It was a payment for the passage of cars and other means of transport through the city,” historians explain.
The extension was not free
“A 10% levy on public transport of buses and on the transport of electric companies is also to be introduced,” the legislator Fáček warned. Really significant taxes on real estate transfers should have risen, by three to seven percent. From the gardens, there was a choice of 20 to 30 pennies per square meter.
But in the end, it wasn’t so hot with paying from taxpayers’ pockets. One of the authors of the law, Jaroslav Brabec, reassured the new Praguers by putting it in the hands of city and municipal councilors to raise fees. In practice, this meant that taxes remained unchanged for the time being.
“It was up to the Prague City Council to create such instruments within a ten-year period that would reconcile the different financial burden in Prague,” said historian Antonín Klimek.
Over a ten-year period, it is expected that it will be clear about the amount of investment in the development of the city.
Million investments
According to initial estimates, the construction of roads, lighting, sewerage, new flats and everything needed to transform Greater Prague into a dream modern metropolis was already expensive.
“Very soberly, the necessary costs amount to 900 million crowns,” said MP Jaroslav Brabec. Therefore, according to the legislators, the capital was entitled to a larger part of some taxes, which would otherwise end up in the state treasury.
“Greater Prague also took over officials, caretakers, teachers, doctors and road workers,” says historian Klimek.
But even that brought problems. employees from the connected municipalities did not, with the establishment of the republic, demand higher salaries and allowances than their colleagues from the old districts of Prague The differences in the amount of wages were to be resolved by the municipality in the future. But by the end of the First Republic, I had not succeeded at all.
On the other hand, the law immediately reduced the lower wages to the level usual in the capital. The same was true for pensions, widows’ pensions and other entitlements.
Another novelty in the connected villages was the blue uniforms of state police officers, who replaced the gray-green uniforms of the gendarmerie.
“The gendarmerie kept order in the countryside, the police in the cities,” explains security expert Martin Jansa, adding that the new districts have been transferred to the Prague Police Headquarters.
As Prague expanded