Prague 6 wants to support sports clubs more, while also looking for savings
photo: Georgi Bidenko, PrahaIN.cz/Children in the gym
The new leadership of Prague 6 plans to give more money to support sports clubs in the upcoming draft budget for next year, but on the contrary eliminated some items as part of the savings. In an interview with ČTK, the mayor of the municipal district Jakub Stárek (ODS) said this.
He added that the draft budget is already more or less ready, but the town halls of the city districts cannot approve their budgets before the proposal of the municipality at the Prague-wide level. If this does not happen by the end of the year, according to the mayor, it can lead to complications, for example in the operation of schools.
The town hall wants savings in its organizations and has eliminated some investment projects from the budget, which it will not look for to actually start next year. On the contrary, the additional cost will be several tens of crowns for financing schools in connection with the sharp rise in energy prices. According to Stárek, the proposal maintains a balanced balance of current, i.e., operating expenses and income, so that money from the reserve from previous years will only go to investments.
As part of the savings, the management of the town hall decided, for example, to cancel a contribution of around one million, which the district gave to the Central Military Hospital (ÚVN) for the operation of the emergency room. It was extra money, the municipality is otherwise in charge of emergency funding in Prague hospitals. “We have canceled support for some events, such as the Memorial of L. Tomíček to the railwaymen, because that is actually a state event,” added Starek.
On the contrary, more money should go to sports. “In the draft budget, there is 14 million more for sports, which is more or less double,” said the mayor. He added that about four million crowns of this should be used for investment, five million crowns will be entitled to the most important sports clubs of Prague 6, and the last five million crowns will be used to help clubs with rising energy prices.
Stárek added that the approval of the proposal will now depend on developments at the municipality, where there is still no new leadership, and probably not even at the December meeting of representatives, which should discuss the city-wide budget. Without it, not even the city districts can approve their management plans, and if Prague does not approve the document by the end of the year, they would have to enter the next year in the so-called provisional budget. This stipulates that the local government can only spend a twelfth of the previous year’s budget in a month.
However, according to Stárek, this would represent a big problem for the town hall in connection with the operation of schools, which will need 20 percent more money compared to this year’s budget due to the rise in energy prices. “Does that mean, for example, closed for three or five days a month, because we can only give one twelfth?” said the mayor. The provisional would also be restrictive in that the town hall would not be able to start any new investments.
Since the end of October, the ODS coalition with KDU-ČSL, STAN with the support of the Greens and Prague 6 Self has been ruling in Prague 6. Together, they have a narrow majority of 23 votes in the 45-member council. Starek replaced Ondřej Kolář in the position, whose TOP 09 ended up in the opposition after this year’s elections. Prague 6 is the third largest Prague district by population, with about 107,000 people living in it. It includes the cadastral territory of Břevnov, Dejvice, Liboc, Ruzyně, Střešovice, Veleslavín, Vokovice, part of Bubenče and Hradčany.