How should politicians entice municipalities to merge – Nordlys

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Oslo (NTB Gunhild H. Bjerve): Featuring 50 million to road, broadband or IT projects hope the government and cooperative parties Christian Democrats and the Liberals to lure more municipalities to join before the summer.

municipalities that have decided to go from door to cohabiting before 1 July, you get a little extra help from the infrastructure pot.

– it’s basically a small sum, but my experience of having traveled the length and breadth of Norway, is that there is often little money it takes to trigger important projects, says Local Government and modernization Minister Jan Tore Sanner (H) said.

He notes that the pot comes on top of other financial support schemes for the municipalities shape.

by linking together

the goal is that the money will be used to link the municipalities closer together and may, for example, go to a new common digital platform, broadband benefit both citizens and businesses, or be contribution to a new county, mention Sanner as examples.

He can not say for sure whether this money will determine whether municipalities say yes or no to the merger, but believes it will be popular.

– Now it’s 200 municipalities are in negotiations, and this funding opportunity presupposes that one is seeking to merge by July 1, he said.

he said that Parliament has asked the government to consider increasing the pot in the revised national budget, but Sanner can not yet say anything about the desired will be met.

economic coercion?

the government is criticized both by the opposition in Parliament and by many mayors to use economic means to force municipalities to choose a union. Recently, the government’s proposed new income system criticized because it will calculate the so-called basic subsidy by population density. That large municipalities benefit.

– The reform is based on voluntary, but it is clear that when you merge two or more municipalities, you will have some additional costs initially. There is broad agreement that society should cover. Then we give an extra carrot to those who joined because it is demanding processes, and there is a broad desire in Parliament that we get stronger welfare municipalities, says Sanner.