From the 2026 budget audit
Pollution enforcement and discretionary programmes bundled into one 2.9 milliárd Ft line.
Genuine pollution-enforcement sits beside a broader discretionary element in one undifferentiated line — frozen pending a functional review that can separate the two.
Roughly 723 Ft per taxpayer per year — 2,888 millió Ft held flat while a review separates the enforcement core from the discretionary remainder.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: enforcement action against polluters who impose harm on others' property — a genuine rights-protection function. The unseen: the discretionary environmental programme element bundled inside the same line, priced against no output and funding no identified obligation.
Objection
"Environmental enforcement is essential — you can't freeze it while pollution continues."
Answer
The freeze preserves the line at its current level — it does not reduce it. The enforcement core is protected; the freeze stops the discretionary portion growing while a functional review identifies which share is enforcement and which is open-ended programme spending. The split, once made, produces a Keep line for enforcement and an Immediate Cut line for the undefined remainder.
Share if you think pollution enforcement and discretionary programmes should be separated before any budget decision is made.
The analyst's verdict
Environmental protection tasks
Rationale
Genuine pollution-enforcement and contaminated-site oversight — action against a polluter who imposes physical harm on others' property without consent — is a rights-protection function. But this single line bundles that enforcement core with a broader, discretionary environmental-programme element. Rather than guess the split, a nominal freeze holds the line flat and lets a future functional review separate the enforcement core (Keep) from the discretionary remainder (Immediate Cut). Freeze for now.
Transition mechanism
Hold at nominal level pending a functional review that separates the enforcement core (Keep) from the discretionary remainder (Immediate Cut). Freeze for now.
Affected groups
Recipients of pollution-enforcement action; communities near contaminated sites; environmental-programme beneficiaries dependent on the discretionary element.
Free Society Institute
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