Szeged city council approves 2026 budget of 117 billion forints

SZEGED, Hungary — The Szeged City Council on Friday approved the municipality’s 117 billion forint (net) budget for 2026, with 21 council members voting in favor. Representatives of Fidesz and the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP) voted against the measure.

Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs Tamás Kovács said the budget allocates about 70 billion forints for operating expenditures and 47 billion forints for development. The city expects 19.1 billion forints in local business tax revenue, 5.85 billion forints from building and land taxes and 420 million forints from tourism tax.

The municipality will spend 9.2 billion forints of its own funds on public transportation and 8.237 billion forints on transport infrastructure development, including the reconstruction of the Huszár Mátyás embankment and the Downtown Bridge. Some 18 billion forints of development costs will be covered by European Union funds.

The council also approved a 21% wage increase, retroactive to early January, for employees of municipal cultural and public education institutions and the mayor’s office. Social support funding will rise to more than 2.42 billion forints, with increases in several benefit categories.

In a separate decision, the council reappointed Ottó Fogas as director of the Móra Ferenc Museum for another five-year term and awarded this year’s honorary citizen title to Nobel Prize-winning writer László Krasznahorkai, who began his university studies in Szeged.

Source: MTI (Hungarian News Agency)