Blagoevgrad decided! No referendum on the withdrawal of a loan of BGN 14.5 million.

At its session today, the municipal council in Blagoevgrad rejected the request of 12 municipal councilors to call a referendum on taking a loan of 14.5 million BGN. It was submitted two days ago by Dimitar Urdev. 14 councilors voted “for”, 17 were “against”, and five voted “abstention”.

“I believe that the citizens of Blagoevgrad should have the opportunity to express their opinion on such an important issue for all of us. I don’t understand how it’s cheap to take a BGN 14.5 million loan, but it’s expensive for us to spend even if it’s BGN 200,000 for polling the people,” said Urdev before the vote. The signature for a referendum was supported by Albina Aneva-Tomova, Georgi Bezhanski, Ivaylo Chervilov, Vasil Miladinov, Veselin Hristov, Hristo Mikhalkov, Ana Stoycheva, Maria Gosheva, Georgi Evtimov, Kaloyan Kaloyanov and Dimitrina Petrova.

According to the chairman of the Municipal Council – Radoslav Taskov, there is no way to have a referendum on issues related to the budget of the Municipality of Blagoevgrad. “I think that even if we accept this proposal, the regional governor will return it to us as illegal. There is no way the RIC will seize the powers of the OIC in order to hold this referendum on June 9 together with the elections for the National Assembly and the European Parliament,” said Taskov. He pointed out that there is still no official proposal from the Municipal Administration in the local parliament for the withdrawal of the loan.

Four days ago, a public discussion was held in the “September 22” hall on the assumption of long-term municipal debt. Mayor Metodi Baikushev stressed that he imposes strict financial discipline. With an increase in income and a decrease in expenses, his team is responsible for stabilizing the financial situation of the Municipality of Blagoevgrad. And he was adamant that an end is put to spending money that the Municipality does not have. He pointed out that only for the first quarter of 2024, the expenses were BGN 1.5 million less compared to the first quarter of 2023. The current liabilities that he and his team found were in the amount of BGN 5.2 million. BGN, currently they are BGN 2.3 million.

“It is necessary to take on a long-term debt of up to 14.5 million in order to implement three important projects for which the assigned funds are missing, and to provide co-financing for two new kindergartens, expansion of the building of the Seventh Secondary School, energy efficiency of 5 town halls and the “September 22″ hall. The new debt will not increase the burden on the residents of the municipality,” said Mayor Metodi Baikushev.