Press Release, 11.11.2020

Photo: Maxim Kruglov

 Maxim Kruglov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, has launched a platform – an aggregator of amendments to the Moscow city budget from municipal deputies of the city. The aggregator enables the municipal deputies of Moscow to make amendments to the draft City Budget for 2021 and the planning period 2022-2023.

Every municipal deputy will have the opportunity to submit an amendment to the city budget via the platform, further his/her amendment can be submitted by the Yabloko faction to the Moscow City Duma for consideration.

According to the present legislation, Moscow municipal deputies do not have the ability to influence the formation of the budget. The Right to Budget aggregator provides them such an opportunity.

Photo: A screenshot from The Right to Budget web-site

Moscow municipal deputies can submit their amendments for the second reading of the Moscow city budget via www.kruglov-mgd-popravki.ru. The amendments received through the portal will be submitted by MP Maxim Kruglov for consideration by the Moscow City Duma.

It should be noted that Moscow municipal deputies can submit their amendments (within the frameworks of their municipalities) on the following topics: health care, education, social infrastructure, landscaping, environmental protection, human capital, housing and utilities, transport, social protection of residents, small and medium-sized businesses, and culture and sports.

Photo: a screenshot from The Right to Budget web-site

The amount proposed for redistribution through the amendments made by municipal deputies is 114.9 billion roubles. It includes expenses related to urban improvement. In the current draft budget assigns this amount to two city programmes: Housing and Development of Urban Environment. Within the framework of a project, this amount is further divided as of municipalities, depending on the number of residents living there. Thus, each municipality, a group of municipal deputies or one municipal deputy can send an amendment to the budget proceeding from the amount from 3.7 to 115 million roubles for the needs of their district.

“Based on the new version of the Russian Constitution, local self-government bodies are now part of the public authority in the country, and “carry out interaction for the most effective solution of problems in the interests of the population living in the respective territory”. However, until present the Moscow municipalities have been deprived of the right to influence the budget formation. Our project gives them such a right. All submitted amendments will be introduced by me into the draft Moscow city budget and read out at a meeting of the Moscow City Duma. If the Moscow City Duma majority does not accept the amendment, we will go on working on its implementation within the framework of parliamentary inquiries and appeals. Municipal deputies, representing residents of their districts, have the right to dispose of part of the city funds: they know better whether the district needs another re-pavement of asphalt, or a new clinic”, Maxim Kruglov comments on the initiative.

Amendments can be submitted until 20 November, after which they will be submitted to the Moscow City Duma for the second reading of the budget.