From the 2026 budget audit
Associations of governments, funded by the government that funds them
12 millió Ft to associations of local governments — bodies with an obvious and adequate funding source in their own member municipalities.
Roughly 3 Ft per taxpayer per year — 12 millió Ft total, added on top of what member municipalities could straightforwardly fund from their own budgets.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: the associations of municipalities, receiving a central transfer of 12 millió Ft. The unseen: the taxpayer already funding local governments through their own budget lines, who now funds a second layer of support to those governments' associations — when the associations have a direct and adequate funding source in the municipalities themselves.
Objection
"But municipal associations do real coordinating work — advocacy, shared services, inter-municipal planning — that benefits from a central funding base."
Answer
Municipalities are units of government with their own budgets. An association of municipalities is the kind of body that, everywhere else, member organisations fund through their own contributions. A central appropriation adds a second layer of public financing to a body that already has the most natural funding source available to it.
Share if you think an association of local councils should be funded by those councils, not by a central ministry transfer.
The analyst's verdict
Support for Municipal Associations
Rationale
A small transfer to the associations of local governments — bodies through which municipalities coordinate and represent their shared interests. Municipalities are themselves units of government with their own budgets; an association of municipalities is funded, naturally and appropriately, by the contributions of its member municipalities, in the same way that any membership organisation is funded by its members. A separate state appropriation to these associations adds a layer of central financing to bodies that have an obvious and adequate own-funding source. The line is small and the classification follows directly from the mechanism: Immediate Cut, with the associations funded by member-municipality contributions.
Transition mechanism
Eliminate in the first budget cycle. The associations transition to funding by their member municipalities.
Affected groups
The municipal associations, funded thereafter by their members.
Free Society Institute
Support independent analysis
Our research is free, open, and unsponsored. If you find it valuable, help us keep it that way.