Press Release, 27.09.2023

Photo: The Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg / Photo by the Press Service of the Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg did not adopt Yabloko’s bill on changes to the law on the budget process at a plenary session on Wednesday, 27 September. Only 14 deputies out of 49 present at the meeting voted for the bill.

The document would allow deputies to put their amendments to the city budget to a vote at a plenary session, regardless of whether the governor supports them. At present amendments from deputies can not even by submitted to the plenary session without the approval of the governor.

Parliament should have the right to independently and publicly assess the feasibility of a particular amendment, Yabloko faction members Alexander Shishlov and Boris Vishnevsky say.

“St. Petersburg is the only region in the North-West, including Moscow and the Moscow region, where deputies cannot propose a budget amendment without the approval of the governor. We are unique in this regard, but this is not a uniqueness that we should be proud of,” Boris Vishnevsky notes.

The Yabloko faction believes that such an order is completely unacceptable.

“The ban on putting to a vote amendments introduced by deputies in the interests of voters grossly violates the rights of voters and contradicts the principle of separation of powers. The budget law is the most important document adopted by the city parliament. It is this law that determines how budget funds will be spent. Removing deputies from making decisions on amendments to the budget violates, first of all, the rights of voters. After all, budget money is not the money of the Government of St. Petersburg, but the money of St. Petersburg taxpayers, whose interests are represented in parliament by deputies elected by them,” Alexander Shishlov says.

“We propose to return to the previous procedure, in which any amendment by a deputy must be put to a vote. It may not be accepted. But we can’t ignore it,” Boris Vishnevsky stresses.