Reform MP: Police can't get salary and staff increase at same time
The police cannot increase their salaries and boost their staff numbers all at the same time, Reform MP Jürgen Ligi says.
As to the question why €12 million of the €60 million budget cuts planned by the government in the spring and still on the agenda should be made at the expense of internal security, Ligi replied that the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) cannot increase their salaries and increase their staff at the same time.
"It is also shameless in other areas if we highlight one or two of these. For example, in the social sphere, there are much lower wages in other areas. Policing is not our poorest area; they are well equipped," Ligi said.
Ligi added that the state can still spend as much as the economy allows. He also stressed that the state must hold back if the economy tends to overheat as it does now.
When the next state budget was planned in the spring, the government set it to €13 billion and talked about a deficit of 3.8 percent. Now that economic growth has been rapid and budget revenues have also grown rapidly, the Ministry of Finance forecasts a deficit of 1.9 percent.
At the same time, the government has not backed down from the plan announced in the spring that the ministries must make €60 million cuts in operating expenditures.
"The large budget deficit created during the good times now needs to be corrected. It is difficult to call the government's task cutting because expenditures are increasing. But the deficit must be reduced and we will do it faster than the previous government promised," Ligi said.
Ligi added that each government makes its own choices on how to reduce the deficit. "A relatively mechanical path was chosen and big steps weren't taken. It has been decided that everyone in their ministry will cut the operating costs."
The government will certainly not make a supplementary budget this year, although technically the budget will certainly be adjusted.
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Editor: Roberta Vaino