“Stop being afraid”: experts assessed the budget plans of Smolny

Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov personally presented the draft city budget for 2022 and the planning period of 2023 and 2024 to the deputies of the Legislative Assembly. In his rather voluminous report, the mayor noted several particularly important, in his opinion, circumstances. Commenting on the document, experts approved of Smolny's approach to setting economic priorities, but called the plans of the city government overly ambitious.  

Development will accelerate

Firstly, this year and over the next three years, in accordance with the “basic” scenario of the socio-economic development of the city adopted by the government of St. Petersburg, Smolny predicts a steady increase in budget revenues: by the end of 2021 - by 20% year), in 2022 - by 14.8%, in 2023 - by 10%, in 2024 - by 8.4%. “Including more than 49 billion rubles will annually go to the city budget thanks to the decision taken by the President of RUSSIA to register PJSC Gazprom in St. Petersburg,” Alexander Beglov emphasized. This will lead to the solution of the previously set task to reach the level of income of 1 trillion rubles, they believe in Smolny. According to the forecasts of the city authorities, this will happen in 2024, when budget revenues will amount to 1.033 trillion rubles, thus increasing by 1.5 times compared to 2020. However,

The second important circumstance noted by the governor is the sharp increase in funding for urban development. “For many years, budget expenditures for the development of the city have practically not grown,” said Alexander Beglov. - The targeted investment program for several years did not exceed 60-70 billion rubles, while its share in the total budget was constantly declining .... The document that is brought to your attention allocates more than 20% of all budget expenditures for development next year, for three years - almost 630 billion rubles, this is actually the size of the city budget of last year.

"Quality shots"

The third circumstance is “qualitative breakthroughs” in a number of specific areas. Thus, funding for the development of public transport is expected to increase by 1.8 times, including at the expense of the federal budget. it is planned to allocate about 150 billion rubles for the construction of the metro, which will be carried out by JSC Metrostroy of the Northern Capital (65% of the shares belong to the city). within 3 years. More than 41 billion rubles. will be allocated to bring 85% of city roads into compliance with regulations by the end of 2024.

“The demand of society for solving social issues today prevails over all others,” said Alexander Beglov. “Therefore, we are increasing funding for this unit in all areas. 20% of the total budget expenditures belong to education. For the next three-year period, the cost of it will amount to 603.6 billion rubles.” With this money, in particular, 205 schools and kindergartens will be introduced. More than 20 billion rubles. it is planned to spend 40% of the existing St. Petersburg schools over three years on repairs, and the same amount on repairs and the purchase of modern equipment. “The development of the city’s healthcare system will be financed in the amount of 750 billion rubles over three years,” the governor said.