From the 2026 budget audit
159 million Ft for historic memorial sites — held flat alongside the Heritage Institute
A small, bounded custodial allocation for national and historic memorial sites: frozen nominal, declining real, paired with the National Heritage Institute freeze as a coherent package.
About 40 Ft per taxpayer per year — state support for the maintenance of named historic and national memorial sites.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: state funding for the maintenance and management of Hungary's designated national memorial sites. The unseen: the case for reviewing whether these sites — like those maintained by the National Heritage Institute — could be transferred to a foundation or trust model over the freeze horizon, reducing the annual state commitment without abandoning the custodial obligation.
Objection
"National memorial sites are part of Hungary's collective memory — the state has a duty to maintain them."
Answer
The freeze acknowledges that duty: the allocation is held, not cut. The argument is that a custodial commitment does not require the envelope to grow, and that a decade-long nominal freeze creates the space to review whether a heritage foundation — with this line's funding as part of its endowment — would manage the sites with greater independence from annual budget politics.
Share if you think historic site maintenance should be reviewed for foundation-model independence.
The analyst's verdict
Support for National and Historic Memorial Sites
Rationale
The memorial-sites line is a small, bounded custodial mandate that pairs naturally with the National Heritage Institute freeze.
Transition mechanism
Hold the allocation at the current level in nominal terms; pairs with the National Heritage Institute freeze.
Affected groups
Memorial site custodians and administrators; no displacement in the freeze period.
Free Society Institute
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