Our Guest
lines - infrastructure is what brings Poland together. One can argue when it comes to taxes, courts or education, but in this case there were no doubts. Everyone would like to do that, everyone would like to offer such funds to our compatriots. There was a different question here: where to get the money? We have shown that by defeating VAT mafias and tax offenders we are able to acquire money for both social policy and development policy. (…) Ladies and Gentlemen, Before I move on to the part where I want to tell you about five new proposals for local elections so that cooperation between the central authorities and local governments is as good as possible, I would like to say a few words about the wonderful economic and other successes that we are achieving because it is heart-warming to see what we have managed to do over the past three years. Firstly, could anyone imagine four or five years ago that we would have, all at the same time, a great social policy, high spending on defence (…), the lowest unemployment, the minimum wage and hourly rates raised to the highest level and low inflation, and that we would also be re-polonising the Polish economy. The Law and Justice government is doing just that. In the banking sector, we are re-polonising the biggest banks, we are re-polonising the energy sector, and even the record industry, which they have sold for the proverbial “cap of plums” – we are buying back our most beautiful songs from foreign hands. And recently, several days ago, we have succeeded in buying back from foreign investors the cradle of Solidarity – the Gdańsk shipyard. (…) Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to present now the five points which will now be an additional driving force for us, additional fuel for the local elections to ensure the best and closest cooperation between local and central authorities. The first one is about the home. We call it “A Warm Home - Polish Home” because high energy bills are often a real problem and a curse for ordinary people. This is why we are launching the biggest programme for thermal improvements. A warm home, lower heating costs, a cleaner environment and healthier people – this is just one proposal for the home. The second proposal is lower waste collection charges. We want to prove that this will be possible if our cooperation with good administrators of our little homelands is good. This is why we are implementing the programme “You Sort Waste - You Pay Less.” People want to pay less for waste management. We are preparing special preferential programmes for housing cooperatives, homeowner associations and single-family homes. And the third point – the home’s surroundings, with the elderly people in mind, in particular. We want to significantly raise our spending – at least double it – on homes for the elderly. (…) Rehabilitation for those who need it and cultural activity is very much needed by these people. What is
also very important in this programme, called “Surroundings – the Immediate Vicinity,” is sporting and recreation activity for the young, families and children. This is why we are going to spend PLN500 million over the coming several years on new theme playgrounds for children, new sports centres, outdoor gyms and open activity zones, which – as you already know – are viewed positively by people and they can make good use of them. And then, moving further away from this “home”, there is another sphere of our life we want to take care of. I mean things further afield: pavements, railway stations and buses. We call it “Modern Municipality” because under this programme (…) we will be spending our money in hundreds and thousands of places where there are no pavements to safely reach a school, for instance. We want “safe school” to also mean a safe road to school. And then, there are local railway stations – most of them dilapidated and often in decline. We have the largest programme for the modernisation of railway stations in 50 years or more. You can already see in Miechów or Żarów how successful our pilot modernisation programme has been. We are going to invest billions of zlotys for our railway stations to be beautiful again so that people living in small towns – and not only those in big cities – can enjoy them. And then, buses. The downsizing of the public bus service (PKS) and bus lines is an infamous symbol of Poland’s retrogression as is the closure of police stations, which we are now reopening. We will also earmark two times more money for municipalities which will want to restore bus connections. (…) The fourth programme, very important one, “100MB for the 100th Independence Anniversary,” is designed to ensure that children, young people and everyone living in small towns and villages have the same opportunities as those living in larger cities because Internet highways are as important for us today as motorways. This programme brings Poland into the Digital Age. Within three to four years we will spend PLN4 billion to deliver fast Internet to all of our 20,000 schools. And finally, the fifth programme, which we have called “You Live – You Decide,” which means participatory budgeting. The goal is to ensure that local residents have more say about the allocation of municipal budgets. For cities with county rights we have put in place a regulation under which 0.5% of their total budget has to be set aside for participatory budgeting. Now, we want smaller towns and urban-rural and rural districts to also have the right to participatory budgeting. We will earmark PLN300 million for this purpose. We want the places where people live to be tidy, orderly and attractive. These are the five programmes for which the government will set aside more money than any central authority has ever earmarked for supporting local governments. Never before did we have such a great wave of investment projects supported by the central government. So let’s elect good, honest, efficient and effective administrators for municipalities, counties and provinces. • 10/2018 polish market
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