From the 2026 budget audit
A 580 million Ft capital budget — held flat, not cancelled.
The Cabinet Office's legitimate coordination function needs an office; its capital line is retained but frozen in nominal terms, eroding by roughly 22 millió Ft per year in real terms.
Roughly 130 Ft per taxpayer per year — 580.7 millió Ft capital line, frozen at 2026 levels while inflation does the work.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: office infrastructure for an executive coordinating function that any government needs. The unseen: the real-terms reduction achieved without a headline cut — inflation as the quiet disciplinarian on capital spending.
Objection
"Surely a modern government office needs capital investment to function."
Answer
It does — and the operating costs are retained in full. The capital freeze acknowledges the function is kept while applying proportionate discipline: a small line left flat in nominal terms declines in real terms over the electoral horizon without requiring Parliament to vote a cut.
Share if you think government capital budgets should face the same inflation discipline as household budgets.
The analyst's verdict
PM Cabinet Office — Capital Investments
Rationale
The Cabinet Office is the staff apparatus of the minister responsible for general political coordination. A government needs an executive coordinating office; that function — interministerial coordination, cabinet servicing, the dossier work behind the legislative programme — is a legitimate part of running the executive, and the operating costs (Dologi kiadások, 1,759.3 millió Ft) and capital line (Beruházások, 580.7 millió Ft) are retained on that basis. The capital line is small enough that a nominal freeze, eroding it by roughly 22 millió Ft per year in real terms, is the proportionate treatment rather than an outright cut.
Transition mechanism
Hold the allocation at 580.7 millió Ft in nominal terms; do not index to inflation. Real erosion at approximately 2.5% average inflation reduces the real value by roughly 22 millió Ft per year.
Affected groups
The Cabinet Office's core coordinating operations; suppliers and contractors who deliver the capital investment programme for the retained coordinating function.
Free Society Institute
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