On Saturday in Botoșani, development minister Alexandru Stoica said the government is preparing an investment programme of four billion lei for local administrations that choose to associate and merge voluntarily, Radio România Actualități reports. The programme is called “START Reforma Administrativă”, it is financed from the state budget, and it also includes tax facilities for the town halls that join the reorganisation.

In the same remarks Stoica repeated the 1 March 2027 deadline and the cut of up to 50 per cent in taxes on buildings and intra-urban land, which he had announced on Thursday in Buzău. In Botoșani he placed those measures inside the named programme, together with link roads, water, sewerage, gas, medical centres and schools.

Glasul Botoșaniului quotes a more precise money line from the same meeting: four billion lei in commitment appropriations, plus two billion lei in budget credits in 2027 and two billion in 2028. Stoica added that by the 2028 elections it should be clear who merges and who does not. The two accounts do not add up to one figure: Radio România speaks of a four-billion programme, Glasul of commitment appropriations and of yearly budget credits.

On the second stage, RRA correspondent Gina Poenaru writes that reorganisation would become mandatory for the localities concerned, through the government assuming responsibility. Glasul quotes Stoica, asked whether a forced merger follows: “The second one, we cannot say it is a forced merger, it is by assumption. The government of Romania will assume this merger, but it will be discussed in a much wider setting.”

The meeting was on Saturday from 10:00 in the Nicolae Iorga hall of the Administrative Palace, at the invitation of prefect Dan Șlincu, Glasul writes. Senator Doina Federovici, deputy Marius Budăi and mayor Cosmin Andrei were also there. Stoica said the county has two localities under 1,500 inhabitants, and he also encouraged those of 1,700 or 2,800. In the voluntary stage, mayors propose and local councils start the step. The programme, he said, will be introduced by ordinance.

Gândul and Economedia carry his Facebook post from the same day: he presented the prefect, the mayors and the county’s MPs with the measure “START Reforma Administrativă: association and voluntary merger” and asked the mayors for courage. Economedia recalls that the tax cut of up to 50 per cent is what he said on Thursday in Buzău.

Image: Wikimedia Commons — Botoșani city hall, 15 July 2012 (Bogdan29roman, CC BY-SA 3.0). The photo is not from Saturday’s meeting at the Administrative Palace.

Sources consulted: Incentives for local administrations that choose voluntary merger — Radio România Actualități; Stoica announces a 4-billion merger programme in Botoșani — Glasul Botoșaniului; Stoica asks mayors to back voluntary merger — Gândul.