Amendment to the Salary Law Should Go Through Urgent Procedure

Most conditioned the formation of the Government with seven ‘guarantees’, including the urgent amendment to the law on financing units of local and regional self-government, which reduces the budget mass for salaries of employees in municipalities, cities, and counties from the current 20 to 15 percent.

In response, the SDP reacted sharply, with its representative Peđa Grbin telling Hina that if the new parliamentary majority insists on adopting such a proposal in the first days of the session and through an urgent procedure, the opposition will ask the Constitutional Court to assess the constitutionality of such a procedure.

Grbin stated that he sees no need for the urgent adoption of the law, emphasizing that it is unclear how this law should look, that it is planned without adequate impact assessment, customary consultation with the interested public, and consultations with representatives of local self-government.

– This is especially unacceptable considering the announcements that income tax will also be reduced in 2018, which is also revenue for local self-government. When we take that into account, the question remains what salary, for example, should an engineer in some city and municipality decide on issuing a building permit – Grbin told Hina.

The SDP member did not dispute the possibility of adopting the law without discussion in parliamentary committees, but referred to the report of the Constitutional Court, according to which standards inherent to democratic procedures must be respected in the urgent adoption of laws, especially broad public discussions.

– If there is a recommendation from the Constitutional Court and if the legislator is aware of it, they should not consciously violate it – he says.

A similar view was offered on Tuesday, October 11, by the newly appointed Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, who, in response to a journalist’s question about whether the amendments to the law would result in layoffs in local and regional administration, said that they should come into force on January 1, 2018, which would leave municipalities, cities, and counties time to adapt. Plenković also assessed that the real impact of this law should first be measured on those units where more than 20 percent of the budget is allocated for salaries.

Obersnel: Continuation of the Rape of Local Self-Government

The discussion about the amendments to the law also took place in the HRT show Otvoreno, where the mayor of Omiš and Most representative Ivan Kovačić stated that he sees no dispute regarding the reduction of the salary mass.

– Omiš is below 15 percent that goes for the salary mass. This is a move that most cities and municipalities will adapt to. About 50 percent of cities and municipalities are already below 15 percent, and nearly three-quarters of cities and municipalities are below 20 percent. Only one-quarter remains that would need help to adapt to the way of financing for salaries. Of course, there are exceptions that will not be able to fit into such a system. For example, the City of Vukovar, and I believe that the state should help it in everything, not just in the salary mass – said Kovačić, to which the mayor of Rijeka Vojko Obersnel opposed for ‘principled reasons’.

– Rijeka has no problems with this, we spend less than 11% on salaries and the law would not disrupt us in any way. I object for principled reasons. There is a European Charter on Local Self-Government that Croatia has signed. It states that a country cannot adopt any law concerning local self-government, especially financing, without consultations with local self-government. Now, all of a sudden, an amendment to the financing law is announced within two weeks without public discussion, without consultations, and this law does not solve anything. The second reason is the fact that we all agree that a reform of local self-government is needed, but from Most, which has used the word reform so much, I expected a coherent law on the amendment of the law on local self-government and financing. The third reason – this is a continuation of the rape of local self-government by all governments so far – said Obersnel.