From the 2026 budget audit
Associations of governments — funded by the government above them.
Municipal associations represent their member municipalities. Those members have their own budgets. A separate national appropriation adds a funding layer that the obvious source — member contributions — already covers.
Roughly 3 Ft per taxpayer per year — 12 millió Ft to the associations of local governments, who have an adequate and appropriate own-funding source in the contributions of their member municipalities.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: the associations of municipalities and the coordination they provide to local governments. The unseen: the central-government funding relationship it creates — an association that relies on a national appropriation has an interest in that appropriation that is distinct from, and can compete with, the interest of its member municipalities.
Objection
"Municipal associations advocate for local government interests against central government — cutting their central funding undermines their independence."
Answer
An association funded by the central government it is meant to hold accountable has a structural problem: it depends on the goodwill of the entity it advocates against. Member-municipality funding is the basis of genuine independence. The line is small; the principle is not. Municipal associations funded by their members are answerable to those members; funded by the national budget, the accountability runs in the wrong direction.
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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
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