From the 2026 budget audit
30 millió Ft for listed-building conservation — frozen until it moves to the right budget.
A heritage-protection capital line misplaced inside an arts academy chapter rather than the national monument-protection budget — frozen to preserve conservation in the interim.
Roughly 7 Ft per taxpayer per year — 30 millió Ft, frozen at the 2026 level, pending consolidation into the national heritage-protection budget where it belongs.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: conservation work on listed buildings under MMA management. The unseen: the heritage-protection budget that should administer this on a conservation-need basis — and the accountability that comes with having the right institution in charge of the line.
Objection
"Listed buildings need continuous conservation funding — freezing and reorganising risks interrupting scheduled preservation work."
Answer
No scheduled conservation is interrupted. The freeze holds the 2026 nominal allocation flat precisely so that in-progress work continues. The reorganisation — transferring administration to the national heritage-protection budget — happens at the next budget cycle, not overnight. Real erosion at 2-3% inflation erodes the real value gradually, an acceptable trajectory for a line awaiting consolidation into the authority with the mandate to assess conservation need.
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The analyst's verdict
MMA Heritage-Protection Investments
Rationale
Capital investment in the protection of listed heritage buildings. Protecting the physical fabric of listed monuments has a different character from the academy's grant-making: a listed building is a unique, non-reproducible asset, and deferred conservation can cause irreversible loss of fabric. The line is small and bounded. However, the placement of a heritage-protection capital line inside the MMA chapter, rather than in the general cultural-heritage budget, is an artefact of the 2011 statute; the appropriate destination is consolidation of this line into the national monument-protection budget, where it is administered by the heritage authority on a conservation-need basis rather than by an artists' academy. Pending that reorganisation, freeze the nominal allocation rather than cut it, so no listed-building conservation already scheduled is interrupted.
Transition mechanism
Hold the 2026 nominal allocation flat; transfer administration of the line to the national heritage-protection budget at the next budget reorganisation. Real erosion at 2-3% inflation reduces the line's real value by roughly 20-25% over a decade, an acceptable trajectory for a line awaiting consolidation.
Affected groups
Conservation of specific listed buildings under MMA management; no interruption to scheduled work.
Free Society Institute
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