Reduced property tax Reduced parental payment Subsidy for child births All are offers Bø municipality has given its residents. – These are measures the municipal director can agree are good measures. But Gunnstein Flø Rasmussen believes the municipality can’t afford it – and suggests pulling out the savings knife. What does mayor Sture Pedersen think about it? All the offers must pass – and free nursery school will be introduced. Is free kindergarten so tempting that you are considering moving to Bø? Yes No I don’t have children of kindergarten age Show result I don’t want to use more savings A municipality’s financial plan can roughly be explained as follows: The administration and the director of the municipality put forward a proposal. The politicians present alternatives and the majority decides the final plan. The director of Bø, Gunnstein Flø Rasmussen, proposed in his proposal to, among other things, adjust the property tax upwards and drop subsidies for childbirth. – We have submitted a budget proposal that breaks even. That means we have nothing to go on, he says. The municipal director in Bø municipality says that no more savings should be used. Photo: Synnøve Sundby Fallmyr He explains that the measures, which were introduced last year, were financed with savings. – My recommendation is that we should not use more of the saved funds. According to Rasmussen, the cuts will save Bø around NOK 5 million per year. The aim of the measures has been to tempt more people to move to Bø. The municipal director admits that these cuts will potentially go beyond recruitment. Bø municipality takes many steps to attract people to the municipality. One of the initiatives is outdoor art. Photo: Synnøve Sundby Fallmyr – It may turn out negatively, but it was the best we could do within the financial framework we have. But the warnings from the municipal director are now being ignored. The politicians would rather make it even more lucrative to move to Bø. Stryker cuts and introduces free kindergarten On Thursday morning, Bø municipality held the last town council meeting of the year. There, the economic plan was adopted after changes from the politicians. The cuts recommended by the municipal director were removed – and in addition they are introducing free kindergarten for everyone. Mayor of Bø, Sture Pedersen. Photo: Lars-Bjorn Martinsen / news – In the proposal for the state budget, the government has decided that all kindergarten places in the initiative zone in Nord-Troms and Finnmark will be free. I have difficulty understanding why Nordland is not also included in the scheme, says Mayor Sture Pedersen in a press release. – That is why we are introducing the scheme at our own expense from next year, says mayor Sture Pedersen in Bø. According to the municipality, this will cost Bø NOK 2.4 million. The municipal director recommended that the municipality not use more savings, but Pedersen believes that it is the return on savings that should be used. – After we sold our shares in Vesterålskraft, we have free funds. We finance free kindergarten places with an expected return on these funds, says Pedersen. Free kindergarten and low property tax Bø municipality is best known for its property tax. In 2019, they cut it sharply and were nicknamed “Monaco of Norway”. The municipal director proposed several cuts, but he recommended that Bø continue with the low property tax. The mayor and the politicians agree – and the tax haven remains. – For me, low property tax and free kindergarten places are two sides of the same coin. Both will contribute to more people choosing to move to Bø so that we can grow the population, says Pedersen. Bjørn Dæhlie moved to Bø after the tax stunt. He has since moved out of the municipality again. Photo: Ola Hellnes / news He points out that there are 23 municipalities in Norway which in the last 22 years have had a population decline of more than 20 per cent. – 10 of these municipalities are located in Nordland, he says and emphasizes that it is therefore strange that the government does not introduce free kindergartens further south than Troms and Finnmark. – I am happy that the municipal council in Bø “matches” the government and makes us as competitive as Nord-Troms and Finnmark, says the Bø mayor. Bø municipality also gives NOK 25,000 in grants to all children born in Bø, and gives a further NOK 25,000 to the child after two years. This is an arrangement that costs approximately NOK one million a year. The municipal board has also decided to extend the scheme with low property tax also in 2023, and also has a low rate of property tax. ALSO READ:
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Bø municipality in Vesterålen is introducing free kindergartens from the new year – news Nordland
