For the First Time Since 2015, Czech Regions Will Get No State Money for Road Repairs

This year, for the first time since 2015, Czech regions will not receive the traditional state subsidy for repairing and reconstructing second- and third-class roads. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš announced the move, arguing that the regions already have more than enough money of their own to cover such work.

“You have plenty of money — around 150 billion crowns sitting in your accounts — so please go ahead and repair those roads instead of blaming us. The state is running a deficit, and you’ve left us with a 37-billion-crown hole in motorway funding,” Babiš said in a video address posted on social media on Sunday, directed at the regions.

The prime minister cited data on the state of municipal and regional budgets for the first half of the year, published last week by the Ministry of Finance. According to the ministry, regions, municipalities and voluntary municipal associations ended the first half of the year with a combined budget surplus of 60.5 billion crowns — down 6.3% from the same period last year.

Governors outraged by the decision

The news that the regions won’t see a single crown of the usual state subsidy for road repairs has sparked sharp criticism, particularly from opposition-affiliated governors. They insist the regions simply don’t have the funds to cover repairs, and that residents will soon feel the consequences of the cut.

“I’m furious — for us, this is probably the harshest blow yet,” said Petra Pecková (STAN), governor of the Central Bohemian Region, criticizing the decision. She said the regions have been left to fend for themselves, and that the Association of Regions is “completely powerless,” since Babiš “does exactly whatever he wants” while governors from his own party stay silent and go along with it.

Pecková pointed out that governors from the ANO movement, which controls eight of the country’s fourteen regions, have so far been extremely cautious in their public comments on the issue. According to Radim Holiš (ANO), governor of the Zlín Region and chairman of the Association of Regions, the question of funding for lower-category road repairs will only be settled at the association’s meeting in mid-September.

The Transport Ministry’s position

This year, the regions requested a minimum of 2 billion crowns for road repairs, though an optimal figure for them would have been 4 billion. The Ministry of Transport rejected accusations that the state provides no support at all for regional roads, noting that since 2015, more than 40 billion crowns have been allocated from the State Transport Infrastructure Fund for second- and third-class roads.

At the same time, the ministry points out that lower-category roads are owned by the regions themselves, meaning their maintenance and repair are primarily the owners’ responsibility. According to ministry representatives, subsidies for current repairs have always been a supplementary, optional form of state support — not an automatic entitlement for the regions.

Source: seznamzpravy.cz