The salaries of local elected officials in Romania are increasing. On Tuesday, the Chamber of Deputies, as a decision-making body, adopted the draft law providing for salary increases for mayors, vice-mayors, presidents and vice-presidents of county councils. The other dignitaries were excluded from the categories targeted by this measure, initially adopted by the Senate, as the first Parliament Chamber notified. The decision caused heated discussions between the power and opposition camps. During the debates, the National Liberal Party – PNL, the Social Democratic Party – PSD and Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania – UDMR (in the governing coalition), as well as the representatives of the minorities, argued that the local elected officials should benefit from higher salaries so as not to be discriminated against. Liberal deputy Florin Roman said that justice is needed for mayors. He stated that, through the introduced amendments, a discriminatory measure ‘that says that all public sector employees, from 2018 to 2022, must reach an equal salary level is thus fixed.
Also from the governing coalition, the Social Democrat Alfred Simonis argued that the local elected officials must benefit from increased salaries, so that the local public administrations should be efficient. The increase in the salaries of local elected officials mars the image of the authorities, but it is necessary in certain cases, the mayor of the city of Iaşi (north-east), the Liberal Mihai Chirica, said in his turn, adding that for the measure to be applied, the necessary funds should be provided to the budgets. I know the situation of the mayors in the county and not only in the county, some of them are really in critical situations, maybe not the poorest, but not in a position to dedicate, with all their heart, the energy they have in the service of the community, said Mihai Chirica. He pointed out that the salaries of the mayors and other local elected officials are also paid from the local budgets, and this law will find a solution, ‘only if budgets are also available to supply the financing sources, as for any other provision regarding increases in expenses’.
From the opposition, Save Romania Union – USR has criticized the decision to increase the salaries of local elected officials and announced that it will challenge the law at the Constitutional Court. The USR MPs have drawn attention to the fact that these increases will be a burden on the shoulders of the private sector, which, in their opinion, should benefit, these days, from support measures provided by the authorities. The mayor of Bacău, USR representative, Lucian Stanciu Viziteu, believes that, in the current context, other decisions would have been needed to support the local administration. ‘I think that the most important thing for the local elected officials is the access to funds for investments and not for their own salaries, which have increased year by year, according to the Administrative Code and the unitary pay law, said Lucian Stanciu Viziteu. Also from the opposition, the president of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians – AUR, George Simion, criticized Tuesday’s vote in the Chamber of Deputies. He stated that the adopted law favors the elite of public sector employees, warning that rifts will be created in society. (LS)
