Kohtla-Järve in Budget Crisis
Estonia's fifth largest city, Kohtla-Järve in Ida-Viru County, is quickly running out of cash, facing budget cuts or even bankruptcy.
The city's council asked the city government to draw up an emergency plan, including staff cuts, budget cuts and a four-day work week, Eesti Päevaleht reported today.
The city has increased its debt levels to the maximum allowed for a local government, 60 percent of the annual budget, and severely overestimated tax income for the year, with Deputy Mayor Ljudmila Jantšenko saying the deficit could grow to 1.2 million euros, or 3.6 percent of the budget, by the end of the year.
According to the 2011 census, the city has a population of 37,000, 8,500 fewer people than just five years earlier and less than half of 1979, when the official population was 87,500.