From the 2026 budget audit
Named foundations in the budget: who decided which associations get your taxes?
80.9 million Ft is transferred to selected civil organisations and foundations — chosen by administrative judgement, with no calculable optimum for how much any named association deserves.
Roughly 20 Ft per taxpayer per year — 80.9 million Ft allocated by the discretion of whoever sets the budget, to organisations that now have a structural interest in the line's survival.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: the scientific societies, the Nagy Imre Alapítvány, the Bolyai Műhely Alapítvány, and other named recipients. The unseen: every taxpayer who funds associations selected by officeholders rather than by their own voluntary giving.
Objection
"These are legitimate scholarly and civic organisations — not political favourites."
Answer
Their legitimacy is not the question. Scientific societies and memorial foundations raise funds from members, subscribers, and donors who value their work — that is the voluntary test of legitimacy. A named-in-the-budget allocation replaces that test with an administrative one, and the recipients become a constituency for their own continuation regardless of their continuing value.
Share if you think which civil organisations receive support should be decided by donors, not by budget administrators.
The analyst's verdict
Support for Civil Organisations and Foundations
Rationale
This line is a transfer to named civil organisations and foundations — the budget text lists scientific societies, the Nagy Imre Alapítvány, and the Bolyai Műhely Alapítvány. A discretionary state transfer to named private associations and foundations is, described accurately, a subjective allocation of taxpayer money by political and administrative officeholders to organisations they select. There is no market price and no calculable optimum for "how much support a scientific society or a named foundation should receive"; the figure is set by administrative judgement, and the recipients — being named in the budget — have a structural interest in the line's preservation independent of the value of their activity. Scientific societies and memorial or educational foundations are voluntary bodies; they raise funds from members, from charitable giving, and from those who value their work. The line is small, but the classification follows the mechanism: a discretionary transfer to selected private associations is an Immediate Cut on principle, and the principle does not weaken because the sum is modest.
Transition mechanism
Eliminate in the 2026 cycle. The named organisations are not abolished — they continue as the voluntary bodies they already are, funded by members and donors. No employee of the state is displaced; the line is a grant, not a payroll.
Affected groups
The recipient scientific societies and foundations, which transition to member-and-donor funding.
Free Society Institute
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