Draft bill #9531 of July 26, 2023
Sponsor: MP Serhii Hryvko, Servant of the People faction
Status: submitted to the Verkhovna Rada
Who is affected: village, township, and city councils, the Ministry of Defense, community residents, and service members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Summary of the bill:
- on top of their other expenditures, the budgets of village, township, and city territorial communities will have to allocate funding for the state defense:
- purchase goods, works, and services to help the military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine located in the territories of these village, township, and city territorial communities. These military units will submit their requests that will be approved by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
- implement local programs aimed at enhancing the state’s defense capabilities and facilitate the material and technical support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
- decisions on allocating funds for the state defense are to be made at plenary meetings of village, township, and city councils
- from January 1, 2024, and until the end of martial law in Ukraine, such expenditures will have to make up at least 10% of the total annual expenditures from the budgets of village, township, and city territorial communities
What is wrong:
- the bill violates the Constitution since it interferes with the distribution of funds from local budgets
- the state will shift a part of its responsibilities onto local budgets. This burden will weaken territorial communities and partially roll back decentralization.
Alternative solution: the state can increase army funding through redistribution of tax revenues in favor of the government budget until the end of martial law. This will meet the defense needs of the state and will not violate the Constitution.