From the 2026 budget audit
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.
What you see — and what you don't
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.
Objection
"County authorities still perform territorial planning — dismantling them creates a governance gap."
Answer
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.
The analyst's verdict
Support for the tasks of county governments
Rationale
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.
Transition mechanism
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.
Affected groups
County-authority employees (a small, skill-transferable headcount); the residual territorial-planning function, which is reassigned rather than abolished.
Free Society Institute
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