A 2026-os költségvetés-elemzésből
County governments lost their hospitals, schools, and care homes in 2013 — why do we still fund their apparatus?
7 billion Ft funds the 19 county authorities whose substantive service functions were transferred to central government over a decade ago, leaving a coordination layer whose role duplicates both the municipal and central tiers.
About 1,730 Ft per taxpayer per year — 7 billion Ft — funds a tier of government whose hospitals, schools, and residential care homes were already removed, leaving a residual coordination function neither tier below nor above actually needs.
Amit látsz — és amit nem
The seen: a layer of county-authority administration whose staff coordinate territorial development planning. The unseen: the duplication cost — functions exercised at both the municipal and central levels, and a tier retained not because it performs a distinct function but because it was not formally wound down when its service institutions were removed.
Ellenvetés
"County authorities still perform territorial planning — dismantling them creates a governance gap."
Válasz
The statutory territorial-planning duties transfer to municipal associations or the central planning apparatus — the function is reassigned, not abolished. The county-authority apparatus itself, retained after its operating institutions were removed in 2013, is the redundancy. The four-year wind-down gives staff a transition with standard public-sector severance.
Share if you think a layer of government whose functions were removed a decade ago shouldn't still draw a budget line.
Az elemző értékelése
Vármegyei önkormányzatok feladatainak támogatása
Az elemző indoklása jelenleg angol nyelven elérhető; magyar fordítás folyamatban.
Indoklás
Funds the tasks of the 19 vármegye (county) authorities. The county tier in Hungary was substantially hollowed out in 2011–2013: county institutions (hospitals, schools, social homes) were transferred to the central government, leaving the county authorities with a narrow residual mandate centred on territorial development planning and coordination. The line funds a tier whose substantive service functions were already removed, and whose remaining role — regional development coordination — duplicates functions exercised at both the municipal and central levels. This is the case the framework flags: a layer of government whose enduring rationale is unclear once its operating institutions are gone. The honest classification is a phase-out: the genuinely necessary residual functions (statutory territorial-planning duties) transfer to the municipal associations or the central planning apparatus, the county-authority apparatus is wound down, and the line falls to zero over four years. The protected party is the county-authority staff — a small headcount with general public-administration skills, suited to severance-with-overlap, but the scale here is modest enough that a straight four-year administrative wind-down is the cleaner frame.
Átállási mechanizmus
Four-year wind-down. Year one: legislate the transfer of statutory county-planning duties to municipal associations or the central planning apparatus. The county-authority grant declines by one-quarter of its original value each year; staff transition over the period with standard public-sector severance.
Érintett csoportok
County-authority employees (a small, skill-transferable headcount); the residual territorial-planning function, which is reassigned rather than abolished.
Szabad Társadalom Intézet
Támogasd a független elemzéseket
Kutatásunk ingyenes, nyílt és nem szponzorált. Ha hasznosnak találod, segíts fenntartani.