Pervomaisk to appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers over 50 million debt to teachers

Due to the government-initiated salary increases for educators and social workers, the budget of Pervomaisk City Council is in a difficult situation. Currently, the city lacks about UAH 50 million to fully fund these payments.

The deputies are planning to appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and MP Maksym Dyrdin to allocate the necessary funds from the state budget. The draft decision is published on the city council website.

The situation with the financing of the public sector in Pervomaisk and Mykolaiv has become critical due to the mismatch between government initiatives and the real capabilities of local communities. In December 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted resolutions obliging to significantly increase salaries: teachers' salaries should increase by 40%, and social workers' salaries should increase by 2.5 times. However, the central government did not provide resources in the state budget to cover these costs, effectively shifting the financial burden to local governments.

The Pervomaisk deputies emphasize that any state decisions that lead to additional costs for communities should be accompanied by appropriate compensation. According to their calculations, the city lacks more than 50 million hryvnias, of which 24 million are needed for social workers and another 26.5 million for teachers. The lack of support from Kyiv is making local authorities face a difficult choice, as without additional subsidies, the community faces massive staff reductions, part-time work, and a significant decline in the quality of educational and social services.

A similar problem has paralyzed Mykolaiv, where the situation looks even more complicated due to the city's size. Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych reported a deficit of one and a half billion hryvnias needed to gradually increase teachers' salaries by 30% starting in January and by an additional 20% starting in September 2026. The mayor emphasized that it is impossible to close this financial gap on its own, so the increase in payments to public sector employees depends entirely on whether the Government will amend the state budget to provide the necessary assistance to the regions.

Катерина Глушко