– We are shocked, all of us. I would say we are in a deep crisis, says Terje Rogde. He is a mayoral candidate for Høyre in Hammerfest. The municipality has been in a special position in Finnmark since the income from the gas plant on Melkøya started flowing in. For a number of years, they collected close to NOK 200 million in property tax from Equinor – every year. A new culture hall, state-of-the-art schools, sports facilities and a new football hall are some of the results. But in the chairmanship this week, financial manager Luis Alejandro Vargas Moleres said that the municipality is in crisis. Hammerfest needs an overdraft of 100 million to cover current expenses. Only a small number of Norwegian municipalities have usually used overdrafts. Conservative mayoral candidate Terje Rogde is critical of the fact that the seriousness has not been conveyed more clearly to the politicians and the people of Hammerfest. Photo: news – Ukultur Høyre’s Terje Rogde is critical of politicians not being better informed along the way. – I was very surprised that a rich municipality, perhaps Norway’s richest municipality, has managed to drive itself so deeply into debt and debt. Rogde believes that an independent review of what has happened is required. – There is no doubt that there has been very poor communication. I place the responsibility on the political leadership that has governed Hammerfest for the past 20 years. The addressee for the criticism is the Labor Party, which has had a clear majority and received up to 71 percent of the vote in elections. Toning down the crisis message Now both the mayor and the municipal director will tone down the crisis message. – The situation has probably been blown out of proportion, says Terje Wikstrøm (Ap). It costs more to run the municipality than was set aside in the budget, but the mayor believes that interest rates and price growth explain a lot. – There is no crisis in Hammerfest municipality. It is important for me to get that across. After the chairman’s meeting, an opinion has spread that all coffers have been scraped to the bottom, including the funds. Wikstrøm refutes that. – Disposition funds, aquaculture funds and the like have exactly the same value and money in them, he says. Terje Wikstrøm (Ap) denies that the municipality he governs is in a crisis. Photo: Sunniva Hadland Bøthun / news – Residents do not need to worry at all, but it is right that we now have a review of the level of operation and which services we should provide to our residents. – But the finance manager calls it a crisis? – It is said in a setting to emphasize the seriousness of the political level. There is no crisis. If there had been a crisis, we would have been at Robek, and it would have looked really dark here, says Wikstrøm. (Robek is a list of municipalities that have such poor control over their finances that the Statsfovalteren has to approve new loans, among other things.) – You said at the chairman’s meeting that you were cursed? – I will moderate myself a bit. When you get things from a distance and see what we’re really talking about, I don’t want to use the word cursed anymore. It’s more like I was a little surprised by what came out. Haven’t been able to cut Christer Ringheim is assistant municipal director in Hammerfest. He believes that the crisis message should not be taken too literally. – Now we are at a point where we can take action, he says. – It was important for us to inform the board about the measures we have initiated internally. Ringheim will initially look at travel, procurement and use of overtime. Together with employees and shop stewards, he will also look at possible restructuring. Christer Ringheim says that budget discipline in Hammerfest is not what it should be. Photo: Sunniva Hadland Bøthun / news Hammerfest has around NOK 4 billion in debt. That is twice as much as neighboring Alta, if you calculate as a percentage of income. The costs of running Hammerfest are 35 per cent higher than in comparable municipalities. This is due to two different things, according to Ringheim. One reason is positive: – Something was deliberately chosen politically because we had the opportunity to do so. We have good income. If you see the totality of what we do, there are individual measures that cost more, but which provide greater quality. The second reason is a little less uplifting. Last year they decided to cut back, but have not been able to follow through. – We are not good enough to maintain budget discipline overall, Ringheim admits.
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Hammerfest municipality needs 100 million to pay salaries – news Troms and Finnmark
