Chisinau Mayor Ion Ceban has proposed holding a local referendum that would ask residents of the capital to vote on two issues: whether municipal schools should be transferred to government control and whether the municipality’s boundaries should be expanded to include additional localities beyond its current suburbs.
Ceban claims that, by taking over the city’s educational institutions, the ruling Party of Action and Solidarity intends to replace school principals, halt education projects implemented in recent years and promote what he described as propaganda without restraint.
“The abusive takeover of schools, replacing principals, stopping all the projects we have implemented over the past few years in educational institutions, and promoting propaganda without any obstacles. Just as they have achieved zero results across the country, they now want to destroy what has been built in Chisinau,” Ceban said.
The mayor also argued that the proposed changes would allow the government to withdraw more than 1.2 billion Moldovan lei annually from the municipal budget by reducing the share of personal income tax allocated to local authorities from 50% to 45%.
“They want to reduce the share of personal income tax from 50% to 45%, money that the City Hall invests in projects and programmes. This is direct theft from the people,” he said.
Ceban further claimed that the proposed fiscal changes are intended to help the PAS-led government cover shortfalls in the state budget, alleging that the country’s public debt has already reached 142 billion lei.