Small municipalities can have more to deal with: – The municipal whip will be removed

Changes are expected in the distribution of the purse to the municipalities, if the government gets what it wants.

Many small municipalities which in recent years have lost financially by remaining alone will once again receive a full subsidy in line with other municipalities. This means that there is less to distribute to the rest.

– The municipal whip will be removed from the income system. It is a tool that the Conservative Party put in to punish municipalities that did not join forces, says Municipal and District Minister Erling Sande (Sp) to NTB.

Lost on being alone

Basically, all municipalities receive a basic grant which is mainly to cover costs for administration.

Before 2017, all municipalities received full basic subsidy, but this was changed in connection with the municipal reform. The Solberg government graded the grant so that some municipalities that did not voluntarily merge with their neighbors lost out on it.

This should give the municipalities a push to get more people to join forces, the government believed at the time. They pointed out that the income system helped to preserve the municipal map. Those who voluntarily remained small could no longer send the bill to others in Kommune-Norge, the argument went.

But the Labor Party and the Center Party, which were then in opposition, strongly protested. It was difficult to talk about volunteering when the municipalities were faced with such financial consequences, they believed.

Now the government wants to reverse the system. They believe the grading is unreasonable and want it removed.

– The municipalities are free to govern themselves, that lies in the local self-government. There is no goal for them to join forces, says Sande.

Acknowledging that some people get less

There are 215 municipalities that will benefit from the move that is now being proposed, while 141 municipalities in isolation may be worse off, according to the government’s overview.

Sande acknowledges that the restructuring means that some municipalities will receive less.

– It will be distributed evenly, so there will not be a large sum per municipality, he says.

The outcome of who wins and loses from the changes in the income system is complex. The basic grant is just one of several elements in the government’s proposal for a new revenue system for the municipalities. It will be presented on Tuesday in the municipality’s bill.

Takes from the rich, gives to the poor

Another of the main points concerns how the income between the municipalities is distributed. Municipalities that are below the national average will receive almost NOK 2 billion more from tax revenue, Sande announced opposite NRK before the weekend. This is how the government will take from the rich and give to the poor.

Poor municipalities will receive tax revenues corresponding to at least 95 per cent of the national average after equalization. Today, those who get at least about 93 percent get it.

The right-wing municipal policy spokesperson, Mudassar Kapur, says that he finds it difficult to comment on individual parts before the government has presented the whole of the financial plan for the municipalities in the coming year. But he notes on a general basis that Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap) and Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp) have so far been mostly concerned with symbolic politics and reversals.

– For the Conservative Party, it is a priority to put Norwegian municipalities in a position to deliver good services, and therefore an important municipal reform was carried out at the same time that the discretionary income of Kommune-Norge was strengthened by NOK 35 billion when we were in government, he says .