Next year’s state budget offers no solutions to end the decade-long recession, and as a result of the Reform Party government’s decisions, the number of people will increase lives in poverty and life in rural areas fades away, said Lauri Laats, chairman of the Center Party group in the Riigikogu, which will present 16 amendments to the draft state budget today.
“Instead of closing state institutions in small towns, it is necessary to support life in remote areas so that whole life can be preserved everywhere in Estonia,” he said. Lauri Laats. “Therefore, we propose to increase the equalization funds of the budgets of local government units by 79 million to compensate Estonian cities and towns for the costs of price increases and additional tax increases of a million.”
According to Lauri Laats, safe, fast and affordable connections must be guaranteed for both public transport passengers and car drivers. “Therefore, county-free public transport must be restored as soon as possible. Car tax makes it even more expensive for people to use a car, and if the intention is to drive people to use public transport, bus travel should also be of high quality and affordable. Also, the income from tickets collected is so small and the cost of implementation is relatively small compared to the income received. In addition to free bus rides, island residents must be assured of free ferry rides. It is unfair that people who live in the islands have to pay extra for a ferry ride to get home,” said the vice-chairman of the Center Party.
In situations of economic recession and increase in unemployment, the living allowance level must be increased to 250 euros and the allowance for a pensioner living alone to 300 euros, and the allowances for disabled people must be doubled. “Furthermore, in order to improve the livelihood of families with children, we would like to increase the child allowance for the first and every child in the family to 100 euros per month. Rising inflation and rising food prices have affected the economic livelihood of many families. It is the duty of the state to come to the aid of families and support their way of life,” explained Lauri Laats.
According to Lauri Laats, the Reform Party government has broken its word when it left teachers without the promised salary increase and does not intend to contribute to the salary increase of those who stand for internal security in the coming year.
“2023. In the coalition agreement signed in 2008, the salary of teachers was promised to increase to 120% of the average salary in four years, but due to the inability of the current government, this promise was abandoned out of the renewed coalition agreement already after a year. work in the internal security field on a regular basis due to wage pressure, a 10% wage increase provides an opportunity to raise wages more competitively and get more workers into the sector.”
