SDE courts Chancellor of Justice over Tallinn's budget
The Social Democrats hope to declare Tallinn's 2015 budget void with the help of the Chancellor of Justice, saying the decision by the city's heads to package the mountain of proposals into far fewer votes was illegal.
While the state budget has encountered few hurdles from the opposition this year, Tallinn's budget for 2015 has seen a much livelier fight, with IRL and the Reform Party submitting 52 proposals, and the Social Democrats 270 proposals.
The Center Party speaker of the Tallinn Council grouped the proposals into a few votes, with all rejected by the majority-Center Party council. A separate vote on each motion would have meant an all-night session for the council. The tactic is used by the opposition in Parliament on most years.
Head of the Social Democrat faction in the council, Anto Liivat, said the speaker gave his party no explanation why the proposals were bundled together, instead of voting for each one separately, as is the norm.
Speaker Toomas Vitsut said such a move to bundle up similar ideas and reject them together is nothing new, also pointing to the fact at least all the SDE proposals had the same financial cover.
He also said there was no economic reasoning behind the proposals, which is required by law.
The Social Democrats have asked Indrek Teder, the Chancellor of Justice, for a legal translation if the move was in line with legislation.
The 529-million euro budget could be approved this week.