Government to publish municipal reform maps next week

Criticism of municipal reform plan focus of Centre Party election strategy

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The government says that it will soon publish details of its plans for municipal reform in Finland.
      Minister for Public Administration and Local Government Henna Virkkunen (Nat. Coalition Party) said on Wednesday that a team that is pondering municipal reform has almost completed its work, and that the new proposed municipal maps will be published next week.
      Virkkunen hopes that the bill for a new law on municipal structure might be submitted to Parliament in the autumn. However, she did not promise that the proposal would be processed before the municipal elections in the autumn.
     
Municipal reform is one of the key projects of the government. However, the issue is facing political obstacles, including opposition at the local level, and internal disagreements between two government partners - the National Coalition Party and the Social Democrats.
      The issue was discussed by government ministers on Wednesday. Virkkunen said that the tone of the discussion was positive and that the exchange of ideas largely focused on the implementation of local democracy when the changes are made.
     
The opposition Centre Party has identified the government’s proposals for municipal reform as a key issue in its strategy for the municipal elections.
      Although the Centre largely agrees with the government on the need for changes to the system of local government, it feels that the government is doing it all wrong.
      Both the Centre and the government agree that demographic changes, the need for more services, and tight municipal finances require action. They also agree on a need for changes in the state municipal subsidy arrangement, and in social and health care reform.
     
However, the Centre Party is worried that the government is imposing a system of large municipalities on Finland. “The government’s approach is from the top down”, says the Centre Party’s chairwoman Mari Kiviniemi.
      The Centre Party says that the government is making the changes by altering structures. The Centre feels that the number of municipalities in Finland is less important than securing local services, which it says would be put in jeopardy if the government plans for municipal mergers are implemented.
     
According to a report published on Wednesday, at least a third of Finnish local authorities will be in serious economic difficulties by 2020, and that a hundred or so will find themselves obliged to hike up their local taxation rate beyond 23%.
      One of the authors of the report, Eero Laesterä, a doctor of administrative sciences, says that poor economic prospects are likely to force local authorities to cut back on their services as well as raising local taxes.
      “The municipal structure needs to be touched to some degree”, he says, noting also that it is no longer feasible to provide the sort of free services people have become acusstomed to.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Administrators to be appointed to examine changes in municipal structure (26.1.2012)
  Leaked map reveals plans to reduce number of municipalities to about 70 (16.1.2012)

See also:
  Centre Party lashes out at government proposal for municipal reform (29.9.2011)

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