With (trade) wars, shifting geopolitical relationships and a cabinet that threatens to fall again every month, we live in uncertain times. The province would like to remain ‘course -resistant’ and holds onto its policy mapped out. Because in these ‘extremely exciting times’ you need a clear path, it sounded Friday of the provincial government during the debate about the perspective note. In that memorandum, the province looks ahead to the (near) future every year.
An important way in which the province wants to achieve that stableness is by assigning structural money to hire staff. In total, it is a number of officials equal to 120 FTEs. One FTE equals a 40 -hour working week. Costs: 17.2 million euros per year. In addition, there must be 30 million annually for urban development, traffic, nitrogen, the environmental services and nature.
Security
It is not that in one fell swoop an additional 47.2 million euros is cycled into the budget. This money was already allocated, but was still as a ‘incidental’ post in the budget until the next elections in 2027. The government was still working on its outline agreement when the Brabant coalition made its own plans. In Brabant they therefore decided to wait for what the new cabinet would come up with.
Yet it does matter that the money is now ‘stuck’ in the budget. Not in the last place because the province can now offer a permanent contract to a large number of officials. There is great scarcity of experts who hires the province. For example, there is a lot of demand for civil servants for nitrogen or the allocation of subsidies.
These people would therefore like to bind the province, so that the following coalitions can also count on sufficient staff to implement nitrogen and nature policy, for example. A bit of certainty in uncertain times, so to speak.
Temptation
Where the Provincial Executive clearly indicates that the Focus is now really on implementing the previously agreed plans, the Provincial States could not resist the temptation to come up with proposals for new policy. A number of these proposals were assumed, which means that the Provincial Executive will still receive a policy.
For example, the province will investigate possible locations for small nuclear power plants, following the province of Gelderland. She also uses the use of bio-based Building materials encourage more, these are materials that are made from plants, fungi or bacteria, for example.
A proposal from the SP to ensure that the regional newspapers of publisher DPG can be read in every community center could also count on a majority. This would help with confidence in democracy and journalism. A calculation from the province shows that this plan will cost around 70,000 euros.
Finally, the Provincial States wore the college to provide a loan to the Pukkemuk amusement park in Dongen. The amusement park wants to expand with a holiday park, but due to a calculation error from the province, the park could not get a favorable loan. The error has since been repaired.
