Slovak city Kosice declares state of crisis due to deficit

Bratislava [Slovakia], December 2: Kosice, the second largest city in Slovakia, declared a state of crisis on Friday due to an expected 44-million-euro (48 million U.S. dollars) deficit.
Mayor Jaroslav Polacek and Chief Supervisor Pavol Gallo announced the transition to a provisional budget next year on the city authority website after Thursday's emergency meeting of the financial crisis staff.
With a provisional budget, the municipal government hopes to save as much money as possible by limiting several legal obligations, including waste disposal services or maintenance of roads and public areas.
Nevertheless, the municipality will try to retain the same level of social and education services.
The major issues for the city's balance sheet are decreasing drop-outs in anticipated funding from taxes collected by the state, as well as increased spending caused by high inflation, energy costs and wage valorization for state employees. (1 euro = 1.09 U.S. dollar)
Source: Xinhua