From the 2026 budget audit
One village's sports hall renovation: 79 million Ft, in the national budget, by name.
A named capital grant to one small municipality for renovating its sports hall — the same single-municipality earmark pattern that names one beneficiary and spreads the cost across the entire national taxpayer base.
About 20 Ft per taxpayer — 79 million Ft total — for one municipality's sports-hall renovation, charged nationally rather than to the residents who would use the facility.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: Szenna municipality's sports hall renovated at national expense. The unseen: the residents of every other municipality in Hungary — many with their own unmet facility needs — who collectively fund a repair that Szenna's own budget and the equal-terms formula grant exist to cover.
Objection
"Small municipalities genuinely can't afford facility renovations from their own budgets — national support is how they maintain basic infrastructure."
Answer
Routine municipal facility maintenance is exactly what the general operating grant and a municipality's own budget exist to fund — for every municipality, on equal terms. Carving a specific repair into the national budget as a named line is not maintenance support; it is a discretionary allocation to one named beneficiary. The mechanism, not the amount, is the problem.
Share if you think all municipalities deserve equal-terms funding, not named earmarks for the well-connected.
The analyst's verdict
Support for the renovation of the sports hall of Szenna municipality
Rationale
A named capital grant to a single small municipality for renovating its sports hall. The principle is identical to Cím 3.5 and scales regardless of the small amount: a budget line that names one municipality and one facility is discretionary allocation of national tax revenue to a concentrated local beneficiary, outside any formula or competitive criterion. A municipality's sports facility, if its residents value it, is funded from the municipality's own budget or the equal-terms formula grant. Classified Immediate Cut, with the standard honour-signed-contracts qualification.
Transition mechanism
Eliminate the earmark; honour any signed contract through run-off; cut the unobligated balance.
Affected groups
Szenna municipality and its sports-hall project; the national taxpayer base.
Free Society Institute
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