With the caveat that one indicator is seldom sufficient to accurately portray any single aspect of life, in terms of municipality budget per capita, Csíkszereda/Miercurea Ciuc and Nagyvárad/Oradea are the most affluent cities in Transylvania, news portal Maszol writes.
The Transylvanian city of Csíkszereda with a population of 42,000 this year has a budget of RON 9,100 (EUR 1,879) per capita, putting it ahead of Nagyvárad with RON 8,140 and Temesvár/Timișoara with a modest RON 6,687. In absolute terms, however, Temesvár leads the pack with RON 2.2 billion, outdoing the traditional rival Kolozsvár/Cluj, whose 2020 budget of RON 1.68 billion is only enough to place it third, just behind Nagyvárad with its RON 1.8 billion.
But if we look at where the money actually comes from, Csíkszereda does not get all of its money from local taxes or other municipal revenues; this year, the town’s funds have been boosted by European Union funds to the tune of RON 3,648 per capita, accounting for more than one-third of the total budget. Nagyvárad will receive EU funding of RON 1,498 per capita and Temesvár, a mere RON 966 per capita.
This is a major worry for Temesvár, which is supposed to be the European Capital of Culture next year (together with Újvidék/Novi Sad in Serbia and Elefsina in Greece) but is currently in danger of losing that support if the municipality and the central budget do not contribute enough to spruce up the city.
In terms of absolute economic power (i.e., tax revenues), the high-tech capital of Kolozsvár is the clear leader with a projected RON 730 million this year, followed by Temesvár with RON 700 million and Nagyvárad with 482 million.
Title image: Csíkszereda residents at the annual Easter food dedication. (source: szekelyhon.ro)
