Viken will have all its expenses covered by dissolving the county. This was finally made clear on Thursday, the same day that the proposal for a revised national budget was presented. Confusingly, it was not in the budget, but in another and much shorter document: a letter from the ministry. – It says that our entire application sum of NOK 377 million will be granted. That’s what the leader of the county council in Viken, Siv Henriette Jacobsen (Ap), says. She is very happy about the money promise. – Because then Akershus, Østfold and Buskerud will not have to start in the red, she adds. Viken’s top political boss is satisfied after they received a written promise of NOK 377 million. Photo: Hallgeir Braastad / news It was this autumn that she and the county council sent an application to cover the costs of splitting up the county. The amount they asked for was NOK 377 million. Doubts about willingness to pay The sum will cover the costs of dividing Viken and establishing new Akershus, Buskerud and Østfold counties. But in the state budget for 2023, only NOK 200 million was set aside for splitting up. Soon Viken is divorced. Vedum and the government promise to foot the bill. Photo: Vidar Ruud This made the opposition suspect that the government would renege on its previous promises to cover all expenses. But the Center Party’s group leader in Viken, Brita Skallerud, says she has never had any doubts that the money would come. – No. We were promised them, and now the government is delivering on it, she says. Applied for NOK 845 million The three counties to be dissolved, plus Ålesund, have applied for NOK 845 million in support. High expenses for sharing also worried many Viken residents. This was shown in a poll conducted by news last year. Many of the respondents believed that the costs were so high that it no longer justified splitting up. Half of the sum In the government’s proposal for a revised national budget, it is proposed to use NOK 204.7 million for splitting. This comes on top of the 200 million that was set aside in the state budget. That is only half of the sum the counties have requested. – The ministry will come back with proposals for additional allocations at a later date, it says. From the roof of gallery Oslo, Viken’s county council leader Siv Henriette Jacobsen has a good view of central Oslo. Now she doesn’t have to look for the dissolution money from the state. Photo: Hallgeir Braastad / news It is also stated that the counties want answers to their applications as these are completed. For Jacobsen, promises of money are as good as money. – When we have received a letter from the ministry stating that the application has been granted, we assume that the letter is correct. But then it is also the case that the money comes across several budgets and that some will come in 2023 and some in 2024, she says. Nor does Brita Skallerud doubt the promise of money. – When the ministry writes a letter like that, the money comes, she says. Want to read more? Here we have collected all the cases we have written about politician salaries in Viken.
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Viken gets costs covered by splitting back to Akershus, Østfold and Buskerud – news Oslo and Viken – Local news, TV and radio
