30 December 2025
(PHOTO: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh)
During the session on December 30, deputies of Mykolaiv City Council approved the protected budget items for 2026.
There were remarks from deputy Serhiy Kantor that the budget was being voted on incorrectly. A dispute arose during the discussion. Serhiy Kantor insisted that the deputies were considering "one budget number and voting for another number."
Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said that they wanted to consider "protected items" and priority expenditures first, and then consider capital expenditures. But it turned out that even the first part did not have enough money. Therefore, the deputies will also appeal to the Verkhovna Rada to provide a subvention so that the city can survive the next year. Also over the weekend, it became known that the city would receive a subvention of more than UAH 267 million. Therefore, the amount in the budget is higher than in the previous draft.
A subvention is a targeted financial assistance (cash transfer) from a higher budget (e.g., state) to a lower budget (local) to cover specific expenses, such as teacher salaries, road repairs, or equipment purchases, and the funds must be spent strictly for their intended purpose, otherwise they must be returned. This is different from a subsidy, which is provided without a specific purpose, to balance the budget.
There were other comments, but in general, the budget was adopted (officially 29 votes, but 2 more deputies were in favor, but they did not have a voting form). It should be noted that the session was held in a mixed format, with some MPs present in the hall and others joining the session via zoom.
It was also decided to conduct training among the MPs on the new budget adoption procedure.
The next decision was to ask the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers to provide additional subsidies from the state budget to local budgets so that the city could meet the necessary expenditures next year. The fact is that the city's projected revenues of UAH 5.46 billion cover only 82% of the necessary expenditures. Therefore, more than UAH 1 billion of additional subvention was requested from the state budget. "37 deputies voted in favor.
Сергій Лозовський