Gori municipality budget to increase next year

Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli

The members of the municipal council discussed the 2019 draft budget of Gori municipality on December 18 at the united session of the Gori municipality council commissions. According to the project, the next year budget will be increased with 6 900 000 GEL and will amount to 39 109 000 GEL. 

The council members sent written remarks about the budget project to the city hall; however, as the opposition members stated, no significant amendments were introduced into the budget project.

Chairperson of the fraction United National Movement in the municipal council Beka Korchilava said the City Hall did not take majority of their remarks into account. 

“We requested to increase space rent monthly fee for homeless people from 100 GEL up to 150 GEL as with one hundred GEL the City Hall cannot find honorable living space for the beneficiaries. This request was not taken into account. The budget is not designed for ordinary citizens and it does not meet their needs,” Korchilava said.

The chairman of the municipal council Davit Razmadze said the City Hall took the recommendations and initiatives of the council members into account; they made well-argumented clarifications about those remarks, which were not accepted. 

“The City Hall envisaged big part of the remarks and recommendations; as for those recommendations, which were not envisaged, we heard well-argumented clarifications about them from the City Hall. As for the voucher system for students’ transportation, which was requested by the UNM, we could not envisage it because we do not have municipal transport in the city,” the municipal council chairman said.

According to the project, significant part of the budget will be spent on infrastructural projects in 2019. The final amendments were already done in the main financial document and soon the council will put it to the vote for final approval. The Georgian Dream will adopt the next-year budget without the support of the opposition members because they have absolute majority in the council.