The City of Iaşi has a budget of 996 million lei available

Doru Mocanu, IaŞi

The Local Council of the City of Iaşi has approved the expenses and revenue budget for 2009, with the municipal officials expecting to have 996 million lei available for the good operation of the city, as well as developing and implementing the city"s investment projects. "I hope we will be able to achieve this budget and that our estimates won"t be affected by the national budget", mayor Gheorghe Nichita said. Democratic-Liberal (PD-L) Counselor Sorin Ionescu requested that members of the local council receive a quarterly report on the revenue and expense budget. The city officials estimate the city"s own revenues will make up 683.6 million lei of the total amount, with an additional 230 million lei to come from revenue tax, 113.46 million lei from foreign loans and another 21.5 million lei from grants.

One third of the general budget, 286 million lei, will be used for new and ongoing investments. These include works on the streetcar rails, rehabilitation of playgrounds, the construction of social housing, asphalt works for the streets, construction of monuments, the rehabilitation of some landmark buildings, the building of the animal shelter, the construction of spring wells, sewer and sidewalks, as well as waste management. Out of the total amount intended for investments, 88.8 million lei will come from the local budget, 113 million lei will come from the loans taken out from Dexia Kommunalkredit and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), 72.7 million lei will come from grants, and 15 million will come from the city"s working capital and special deposits.

The largest amounts will be allocated for improving public transportation and streets. The rehabilitation of the streetcar lines in the areas of Gară, Canta, Alexandru cel Bun, Tătăraşi and Târgu Cucu will cost over 42 million lei, funded by means of the local budget and of two foreign loans. Over 35 million lei of the Dexia loan will be spent on asphalt works for streets which are in modernization stages I and II. Other large amounts were allocated for the consolidation of the Alexandru cel Bun passageway and of several buildings in the city. The thermal remodeling of apartment blocks, the construction of spring wells in the Voievozilor square, sidewalk rehabilitation, the modernization of the Cuza Vodă, Târgu Cucu, Baş Ceauş and of the Oancea Esplanade, the expansion of the Municipal Swimming Pool located in Cicoarei street, the construction of monuments, the draining of the Moldova river, the modernization of the network for the distribution and transportation of thermal energy are among the objectives for which sizeable amounts were allocated this year.

Another 12 million lei were allocated to allow the ongoing construction of social housing in Grădinari. Over 10 million lei will be allocated for the Integrated Waste Management project, with most of the money going to the construction of the ecological waste storage facility in Ţuţora. One million lei will be spent on the pet shelter. 7.5 million lei will be spent for the underground passageway of the Central Covered Market (Hala Centrală).

The grants budget for this year is far lower than last year"s. Whereas in 2008, the draft budget for 2008 provisioned over 136 million lei coming from grants, this year the city officials are hoping to receive at best 88.7 million lei. The only certain amount is 6.3 million lei, for the project launched by the township in December 2008 through the Archimedes program. The same budget chapter includes 28.7 million lei for the grant from the Swiss government for investing in the city heating grid. The township is expecting other grants as advance payments for the 10 priority projects included in the Integrated Development Plan for the Iaşi Growth Pole.