Response to interpellation 2023/24:614 on the financing of municipalities
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD argues that municipalities have a far-reaching responsibility for their financing through the right of taxation and need to take measures to achieve a balanced economy 1. KD claims that the government has increased the state grants by 34 billion kronor and that the municipalities need to adjust their costs 2 3. S argues that the government's state grants are far from sufficient and that municipalities are forced into cuts within elderly care, school, and education 4 5. S argues that the government does not compensate for inflation, which leads to draconian cuts 5 6 7. S proposes that the state grants should be inflation-proofed 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Speakers (13)
Statsrådet Erik Slottner (KD)
Madam Speaker! Sanna Backeskog has asked the Minister for Finance if she will present increased state grants to the municipalities to such an extent that we do not risk layoffs in Swedish municipalities.
The work within the government is distributed in such a way that it is I who shall answer the interpellation.
Municipalities and regions have, through the municipal right of taxation, an extensive responsibility for the financing of their operations. The economic situation in the municipal sector is strained in 2024. Many municipalities need to review their finances, just as many households and companies need to do, and take measures to achieve a balanced economy and sound financial management. The economic forecasts show, however, that the situation looks better already in 2025 and 2026.
The municipal sector as a whole has reported positive results since 2004, and since 2013 there has been an opportunity to reserve surpluses into a result equalization reserve that can be used to smooth revenues over a business cycle. A majority of municipalities have used this opportunity.
Against the background of the strained economic situation, welfare was prioritized in the state budget for 2024, and approximately 40 percent of the reform space was allocated to economic supplements to municipalities and regions. Collectively, the state grants to the municipal sector were reinforced by nearly 16 billion kronor, of which 10 billion kronor was an increase in the general state grants, which can be used freely based on local needs.
Since the government presented its budget for 2024, the economic forecasts have worsened further, and particularly for the regions. Therefore, we have announced further financial support to the regions in 2024 and measures to also improve the regions' economy in the longer term.
The government also monitors the municipalities' finances closely.
Sanna Backeskog (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the opportunity to discuss the municipal crisis! On the government's website, one can read that it is the responsibility of the Minister for Civil Affairs to work for good and functioning cooperation between municipalities, regions, and the state so that all levels can carry out their important welfare mandates in the best possible way.
The passage begins with the sentence: Municipalities and regions face tough times, partly due to economic uncertainty, partly due to war in our vicinity.
Madam Speaker! That it is tough times is no exaggeration. This is how Magnus Jonsson, the chairman of the municipal executive board in Ockelbo, describes the economic situation:
As KSO in the smallest municipality in Gävleborg County and with 17 years of experience, it is the first time we need to proceed with a budget with borrowed money and use the result equalization reserve. This year we have approximately 30 million kronor less in general state grants from the government. I have administered Reinfeldt's, Löfven's, and Andersson's budgets, but I have never witnessed the making of such a meager budget as the one Ulf Kristersson and his government are handing out. If this is allowed to continue heading into 2025 and beyond, we must make dramatic decisions in our main mission – healthcare, school, and care. It will hit our residents hard.
Ola Wigg, who is the chairman of the municipal executive board in Nordanstig, is at least as concerned as Magnus and is faced with the fact that cost increases combined with reduced state grants mean concrete cuts within elderly care, and this is combined with fee increases. In Nordanstig, users will therefore have to pay more for poorer care. The budget simply does not add up otherwise.
Madam Speaker! I have the privilege of sitting on the Committee on Justice and I also want to say something about the perspective of crime victims.
Six women were murdered in less than three weeks. Deadly violence against women and children increased during 2023. The National Audit Office gives scathing criticism of Sweden's ability to protect crime victims under threat. At the same time, the government is choking off the funding for the municipalities' work on women's peace. After 17 years, Sweden's municipalities will no longer receive any development funds for the work on women's peace. At the same time, the women's shelters are not given sufficient resources to live up to the new quality requirements for protected housing. And the Socialstyrelsen's support for Brottsofferjouren's work on women's peace is reduced by 66 percent.
If the government is serious about men's violence against women being a priority for them, it must be reflected in the resources to civil society and to the municipalities. It is partly about the preventive work, and partly about being able to work in cooperation with the police in a structured and long-term manner to stop the perpetrators and provide protection and support to the crime victims, as is done, for example, through Trygghetens hus in Bollnäs. The situation is truly acute also within this area.
Madam Speaker! Cooperation between municipalities, regions, and the state is very important so that all levels can carry out their important welfare mandates in the best possible way. But in order to be able to carry out welfare mandates, resources are needed. The employees are truly the most important key to a good and high-quality welfare, the one we all expect and which we also have a right to. But the employees cannot work for free. They need reasonable working conditions, and they need a wage that it is possible to live on.
I am very concerned about what consequences the municipal crisis will have for the residents of Gävleborg and Sweden in the short and in the long term.
Madam Speaker! The residents of the municipalities and Sweden need answers. Will the Minister prioritize Sweden's welfare over new tax cuts in the autumn budget?
Kristoffer Lindberg (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Sanna Backeskog, for this very important interpellation! The state grants that the government provides to the municipalities to finance Swedish welfare are far from sufficient. Both regions and municipalities are forced to make cuts. The need is enormous right now.
The government now chooses to increase the allocation to the regions and healthcare by 6 billion. It is absolutely not wrong. It is of course welcome, but it comes when many regions have already managed to begin cuts and layoffs. It is also far too little to cover and stop the layoffs within healthcare.
As has been said, there is a great need even when it comes to the municipalities. SVT has asked the country's municipalities how they view the economy and potential savings in 2024. It emerged then that two-thirds of the municipalities that responded to the survey are forced to make cuts during this year. Most answer that it will likely occur within elderly care, school, and education.
This is exactly what we warned about already a year ago. Now we see the consequences of the government's policy for healthcare, for schools, and for elderly care. We also see the consequences for other municipal activities. For example, leisure and cultural activities are enormously important to give children and young people a good upbringing and an active and valuable leisure time. They also constitute an important part of municipalities' preventive work to reduce crime and social exclusion. Here we have, on one hand, the association-driven activities, where the sports movement is the largest, and on the other hand, the municipal activities with everything from cultural schools, youth centers, libraries, and association grants. Now we see how over 90 percent of the country's cultural schools are forced into cuts as a consequence of the government's policy.
I will not devote this debate to describing how the government's policy hits Swedish civil society, the association life, and the sports movement. But I can state that these are not only dependent on the various state supports that exist; they are also to a large extent dependent on municipal support and municipal facilities. The municipal facilities are absolutely crucial for the association-driven sports to be able to conduct their activities. The municipalities' finances right now therefore also affect the local association life.
Back to the crisis in welfare. I want to mention some examples from reality, where one handles the government's welfare betrayal every day.
I live in Bollnäs municipality in the heart of Hälsingland. There, the government's policy is clearly noticeable. The results for primary and secondary school last year landed at nearly minus 21 million. During the current year, 16 million kronor that were previously received in targeted state grants are to be cut. These are funds that Bollnäs has used to reduce shared shifts. The government has also cut these state grants.
Furthermore, we see that within the health and social services activities, the forecast this year was minus 18 million already after only two months of the year had passed. In total this year, 2024, the municipality is to carry out cuts of 52.6 million. They are doing a heavy job. Health, school, and care are of course protected as far as possible. But it is clear that the economic conditions are also felt in the municipal core activities. That is how it looks in my home municipality, and that is how it looks in many other municipalities.
I do not mean that the minister should comment on the situation in Bollnäs municipality specifically; I am using it as a speaking example. My question is rather: Will the minister present any increased state grants to the municipalities to prevent the extensive cuts that the government's policy forces the municipalities to carry out?
Patrik Lundqvist (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer and for the opportunity to discuss how the state's management of the economy affects Sweden's municipalities and the labor market in our country!
What we are experiencing now is a result of very high inflation which causes high prices and is now leading to a recession in many parts. The savings being forced through in the municipalities through practically reduced appropriations from the state affect the municipalities in some ways very differently but in many cases also very similarly.
In recent years, when the state has backed off and no other actor is on site, the municipalities have had to take over an ever-increasing role when it comes to active labor market policy. That very activity is not mandated for the municipalities and therefore risks to a large extent being placed on the municipalities' chopping blocks across the country. It is about measures to get people from social welfare into jobs and education to be able to take the jobs that exist and need to be done. This will, of course, hit those who are furthest from the labor market hardest when municipalities get to prioritize those who are easiest to get into jobs, while those with disabilities and other problems have to stand back.
In Gävle, for example, savings of 12 million are planned for adult education and 7 million for the purchase of work training, including that which is called the activity house and Arbos. These are, therefore, measures so that people with mental ill-health or disabilities can train and return to both health and work.
The government has also made significant savings on vocational college educations - perhaps not the minister's area - which have been one of the best instruments Sweden has had to move people from unemployment to jobs within professions where there are documented needs.
Certainly, there have been investments lately. That is what one hears every now and then. But it is against the background that it was first cut significantly more. In one year, 25,000 places are removed across the country, and then money is restored for approximately 9,000 places and it is called an investment. It is naturally good, I want to point that out anyway, but it is far from enough and in the long run a deterioration.
To top it off, Madam Speaker, we also have what appears to be a significantly passivized right wing in the municipalities where they have received the power from the voters to rule. This is how the opposition describes the actions of the Söderhamn municipal management: Despite clearly lower birth rates in the municipality as a result of bad times and uncertainty in the world around us, just as in the rest of the kingdom, and lower immigration, the management in Söderhamn plans for the municipality to grow by 3,000 inhabitants.
The deficit for the municipality is estimated to be 47 million. Of that, measures have so far only been presented to tackle approximately 20. It is a deficit of 1.5 percent - and the year has hardly begun.
At the same time, a third referendum on wind power in the municipality is being planned at a cost of approximately 1.5 million kronor, despite the fact that two previous referendums have been held and no change has occurred as a result of them.
The residents of Söderhamn are thus doubly punished by a passive government and a municipal leadership that does not see the seriousness of the situation but instead buries itself behind referendums and excuses instead of tackling the challenges that the municipality faces.
Linnéa Wickman (S)
Madam Speaker! The government recently announced further state grants to the regions after we have seen an increasingly worsened healthcare crisis driven precisely by the fact that the government has failed in its support to the regions during the cost crisis.
Even the welfare in our municipalities is affected by the government's political priorities and insufficient state grants. I particularly want to highlight the situation within elderly care, where care assistants, nursing assistants, and nurses work year-round, every day, every hour of the day to provide people with the care, nursing, and service that ensures everyone can age in safety and dignity when the body can no longer manage daily tasks or when the memory begins to fail.
According to a survey that workplace representatives in elderly care in 288 of the country's municipalities have responded to, more than half now state that the schedule is worsening for the staff and that there will be cuts in staff and a reduction in staffing density. 40 percent state that each employee will be expected to take care of more elderly people. A third testify that the competence requirements for new hires are being lowered and that stops are being introduced for bringing in substitutes during sick leave.
This is happening in a situation where only just under half of the employees in elderly care state that they want to continue working in the profession in three years. The most common reasons for wanting to quit are that the work is so physically and mentally demanding, that the lack of recovery is great, and that one is not given the conditions to meet the elderly's individual needs.
The demographic development in itself means that elderly care would need to employ more educated staff to meet the needs of the population. But instead of enabling reforms and significant economic investments for higher quality and better working conditions within elderly care, it is not even possible today to maintain the current level of welfare.
Nordanstig forces a deficit of 10 million kronor within elderly care, meaning that users in home care who have a decision to shower twice a week will now have to shower once a week. The social and preventive measures in home care, where users receive visits to socialize and break their involuntary loneliness, will be removed entirely. At the same time, the fees are also being raised.
In my own home municipality, Gävle, one is now forced to make savings of around 180 million kronor in the municipality's welfare committees. This involves, for example, halving the number of places for respite stays for those who receive elderly care at home in order to relieve relatives who take a great responsibility for the individual's care.
There is also a risk of cuts to family centers, which provide advice and support to those caring for a relative. Meeting places for seniors will have to reduce their opening hours, and cuts will be made to activities with social hosts at sheltered housing and to the coordination of volunteers.
These two concrete examples from two municipalities in Gävleborg - a rural municipality and the county's largest municipality in terms of population - show how low state grants directly affect those who need elderly care in their daily lives.
Already today, 140,000 people have reduced their working hours or stopped working to care for a close relative. It is primarily women who take on that responsibility. If the cracks in the collective welfare now widen, the question is how many more will have to make up for people's care needs when the collective welfare is not there, for that is unfortunately the development we will see if nothing is done.
I want to repeat the question that has already been asked to the Minister for Civil Affairs as to whether he can today provide an answer regarding increased state grants to the municipalities in the spring budget in order to at least prevent the cuts that the municipalities in Gävleborg are now forced to make.
Statsrådet Erik Slottner (KD)
Madam Speaker! Now, the examples from the rostrum from various municipalities have been raining down. It is, of course, impossible for me as a minister to review the priorities of elected municipal politicians, as I do not know the reason for every single decision taken in every single municipality in Sweden. Even though municipalities and regions happen to fall under my area of responsibility, it is impossible.
Even in good economic times, cuts are sometimes made in operations because one chooses to reprioritize. I cannot go into all the examples that have been given, but one thing is certain: The economic situation is tough in municipalities and regions. It is nothing that we are trying to fudge or give any other picture of. It is a tough situation; it is for everyone. It applies to households, the business sector, municipalities and regions, and it depends to a very large extent on the fact that inflation has been high, which affects the regions in particular. It also depends on the recession, because when unemployment rises and the number of hours worked decreases, it hits the municipal economy directly.
We have also said that even though the state does very much and gives historically large state grant increases to the municipalities, the state will never be able to compensate for everything. So it is.
Even with the Social Democratic shadow budget, the municipalities would have it very tough and be financially strained. In the Social Democrats' budget for 2024, they increase the municipalities' finances by some per mille, I believe, through the state grants. It differs by 6 billion kronor. That is some per mille of the municipal economy. It would help, but do not exaggerate the differences between the Social Democratic budget and the government's! It is, therefore, a matter of some per mille.
The government has governed for almost a year and a half and so far increased the state grants by 34 billion kronor to municipalities and regions in general and targeted state grants. In the budget for 2024, 40 percent of the reform space went to increased state grants to municipalities and regions. This shows that the government prioritizes welfare and the municipal and regional sector.
Furthermore, municipalities and regions have had a very good economy over a long series of years and have run with quite large surpluses. They have been able to transfer money into equalization reserves. Approximately 80 percent of the municipalities have transferred money into equalization reserves, which can now be used to counter a recession. It is a financial responsibility that I welcome.
We are now facilitating, from the government's side, allocations to result reserves and also withdrawals, i.e., that one utilizes the result reserves. This is so that the municipalities' flexibility will become even greater in the future. It is very good that even Ockelbo municipality, which was mentioned here in the debate, has such a result equalization reserve because it means they can counter the recession better.
Now time is running out, as usual, but there were some questions about whether there will be announcements regarding increased state grants in the supplementary budget. My opponents, Madam Speaker, know just as well as I do that the announcements will come when they come. The supplementary budget is to be decided here on April 15. Then, at the latest, the announcements will come. We have already announced that the regions will receive 6 billion in increased supplements.
A question came up as to whether we will prioritize welfare over tax cuts. I can already answer yes to that, because for welfare, we have presented that we are providing funds in our supplementary budget, and we cannot change the taxes there. Some tax cuts will therefore not be included in the supplementary budget.
Sanna Backeskog (S)
Madam Speaker! I would still like to provide a few more examples just to give the Minister a broad picture of what is happening out there in Municipal Sweden.
In my many meetings with representatives from the police, the Prison and Probation Service, and civil society in my role as a substitute in the Committee on Justice, I receive a consistent picture that we must become better at working preventatively. Most argue that the recent governments' investments in the justice system have been good and right, because crime must be fought. But, Madam Speaker, we must also fight the causes of crime, and for that, a strong welfare state is required.
In Gävle, there has been a long-standing effort to meet these needs. Cooperation is evidence-based and long-term between professions, for example via SIG, social intervention groups. We have a social service to be proud of in Gävle. There are activities there such as Grinden, which is a safe place for children and young people who have a parent with mental illness or addiction. In Gävle, there is also Familjestödet, which provides parents with parenting courses, counseling, and group sessions. We also have fantastic field workers who build relationships with our young people and who can catch and be quick-footed when it is restless in a district.
In Gävle, a strong association and leisure life has also always been prioritized. Perhaps it is precisely thanks to the active preventive work that the district Sätra and my own district Andersberg, both of which have neglected residential areas with socioeconomic challenges, are not found on the police's list of vulnerable areas.
Inflation and cost increases have hit Gävle very hard, just as they have hit many other municipalities. The welfare sector needs to save 180 million, as Linnéa Wickman mentioned. In the social welfare committee, which is led by the civil minister's party colleague Martina Kyngäs, a decision had to be made to reprioritize resources from preventive work to work with HVB placements in order to be able to bring home 40 million. In the preparatory work for the decision, one can read that the conditions for working preventively and with early interventions when needed will decrease, and that an increased risk for social unrest and crime is seen in Gävle.
This is inconsistent with the fact that since last summer, the municipalities have a statutory mandate to work on crime prevention. It is a mandate that the municipalities have received from the state without being compensated financially. In Gävle, one receives compensation so that it covers a mere full-time position. Compare that with the 40 million that must be saved within the social committee's area of operation! In Ockelbo, the sum is only 120,000 kronor, while at the same time one must adhere to perhaps the most meager budget in living memory.
Madam Speaker! It is a consistent picture that is being presented from the municipalities in Gävleborg. Regardless of which party constellation has the majority, these are very tough times. In the municipalities where one has not yet had to make significant cuts, it is precisely because one can utilize the equalization reserve – or the Magdapengarna, as they are called by political representatives out in the country. Those funds did indeed come to pass during the pandemic.
Madam Speaker! Now we face a crisis again. It is about families with children who cannot afford to put nutritious food on the table, let alone pay for leisure fees and equipment. It is about a construction industry without a mission and with layoffs as a consequence. It is also about a business sector that is asking where the government has gone. And the welfare system is on its knees with employees who have hardly had time to recover from the pandemic and are now once again faced with impossible tasks.
The positive thing is that it does not have to be this way. Ultimately, it is a political priority from the Prime Minister and his government. One does not have to prioritize bankers' large profits, plastic bag tax, tax cuts for high-income earners and luxury renovations.
Madam Speaker! I am really, really worried, but I will not ask the Minister now whether any money will be in the supplementary budget. It will come if it comes. But I can at least say that I am really crossing my fingers for Kommunsverige.
Kristoffer Lindberg (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer.
It is an incredibly tough situation for the municipalities all around Sweden. Of course, the minister cannot comment on the examples from our various home municipalities. That is not the purpose either, but they are there to show what is happening in the municipalities right now.
All municipalities are affected by the government's insufficient state grants, but municipalities that already have a weaker tax base, which already have the country's highest tax rates and which have a greater need for welfare activities are hit even harder when the government does not compensate for the increased costs and needs that the municipalities have.
I have spoken with so many municipalities, and they all say the same thing: The general state grants must increase for us to be able to fulfill our mandate. At home in Bollnäs, they have even discussed the butter for the school children's sandwiches in the school cafeteria and whether children in general preschool, so-called 15-hour preschool, should receive food at the preschool or not. That is the level they are down to discussing in order to balance the municipal budgets. That is how the situation looks in Municipal Sweden. Do not put the municipalities on a starvation diet!
It is clear that we may prioritize welfare a bit differently, and that is of course fine; one can have different opinions. The Minister must of course accept that we Social Democrats, who want to ensure the Swedish people's legitimate expectations regarding the level of Swedish welfare, will continue to point out to the government that there is a need for more resources for the municipalities.
I am very much looking forward to the announcement regarding which state grants will be coming to the municipalities and the increased state grants that will come when they come.
Patrik Lundqvist (S)
Madam Speaker! It would probably have been hard times even with a Social Democratic government; that is absolutely true. But they would have undoubtedly also looked better. Regardless of whether one can count in per mille, per mille is per mille, when it comes to the municipalities to this extent, it is still millions of kronor. I believe it is important to keep in mind that it is, after all, about quite a lot of money and about quite a lot of good that could have been done with them.
Madam Speaker! Overall, we now have a situation where Sweden is heading towards a recession, where high inflation over a long period has pushed up prices, and where the government does not want to compensate for those price increases.
Certainly, we have had good times when municipalities have had the opportunity to set aside funds for the equalization reserve. That is absolutely true. But those funds exist for a time. Once they have been used, they are gone, and the costs remain. One can winter over shorter problems, and one can use them to postpone cuts if the recession lasts longer, which it indeed seems it will. We do not only have problems in the municipal sector, but we also see major problems in the construction and timber industries.
One of the strengths of public Sweden is to act as a buffer when the recession hits and to ensure that a large number of people have a wage to use for consumption and to keep the economy going. This is perhaps the most serious aspect of not helping the municipalities with the economic crisis but instead shifting the costs and the inflation fight onto municipalities and individuals, which this government seems to be doing.
Linnéa Wickman (S)
Madam Speaker! In the short term, acutely, the question regarding additional state grants to the municipalities is whether the government will take responsibility for preventing draconian cuts within the welfare system in our country or not, and whether the cuts that one is now forced to make, for example within elderly care in Nordanstig and Gävle, must be implemented or not.
Yes, it is about priorities. The Minister speaks of the municipalities having to prioritize, but the government must also prioritize. Is a shared responsibility for a dignified welfare most important, or should tax cuts for high-income earners and on tobacco and plastic bags come first? Should the banks, with their excess profits, contribute more in these times of crisis or not? Should the burdens of the crisis be distributed more fairly or not?
At its core, what we are debating here is about the need to close the welfare gap that exists between the resources that welfare has today and the resources welfare would need to strengthen equality, quality, and access to a good welfare across the entire country. It is now in these economic crises that we can see very clearly and crystal clear what the different circumstances of municipalities and a structural underfunding of welfare with lowered taxes of hundreds of billions of kronor at the national level for many years actually leads to.
Many municipalities have no other alternatives to counter the cost crisis than to make cuts in the municipal operations, which are already very streamlined in many places, or to raise the flat municipal tax, which hits low- and middle-income earners hardest. This means that the size of the state grants has a decisive importance in these times of crisis.
I would like to conclude by asking the Minister if the government is prepared to reconsider the issue of inflation-proofing the state grants so that they are at least not eroded from year to year. This is something we Social Democrats have proposed.
Statsrådet Erik Slottner (KD)
Madam Speaker! First, it must be said that the economy looks very different across the municipalities of Sweden. For some municipalities, the economy actually looks fairly good despite the recession, while other municipalities are burdened with significantly greater economic problems. Some municipalities have also been this way for a long time. They are burdened with large structural problems with a cost structure that is not adapted to, for example, a gradual annual population decline. It thus looks very different across Sweden.
I myself have been a municipal politician for many years and sat with those small details in various operations, even when the economy has been much better, because the economy is always under heavy pressure. One would preferably want to give more money to what truly is the municipal core. Even when the economy is good, one wants so much more than the economy allows, and one tries to find cost savings all around in different operations in order to really be able to invest in what the heart burns for.
To clarify, information regarding state grants is provided primarily in the autumn budget. It is usually there that we make changes to the state grants. The negotiations have not started yet, and I therefore cannot give any such signals or information here and now. It will come in September.
Since then, we have had a spring revision budget where one often makes smaller adjustments. Now, the Finance Minister has presented larger measures and a more expansive spring revision budget than what is common, and 6 billion of those increases will go to the regional sector to strengthen healthcare. That is what the government has presented. The whole will be presented on April 15, but there will surely come one part-announcement or another before then, I would think.
I still think it is a bit interesting that these 6 billion to the regions, according to last week's debate, would mean a little bit on the margin for the regions, while one is now talking about these 6 billion in increased state grants as something that would really save all these welfare initiatives in Nordanstig and other municipalities. The rhetoric doesn't quite hold together, I think. Is 6 billion a lot of money or is it not a lot of money? The Social Democrats must decide. It constitutes some per mille of the municipalities' total economy, so some revolution would hardly be the result in the municipalities with 6 billion more or less. I think we can all agree on that.
Then it is said that we are not helping the municipalities. May I remind you that this government has increased the state grants to the municipalities by 34 billion kronor, including that which comes in the spring budget. That is not small change. 40 percent of the reform space well shows that the government has prioritized welfare and the municipalities and the regions? One can of course think that it is too little money in any case, but to say that the government is failing municipalities and regions and that we are showing no interest, I think is an unfair criticism of this government.
Then it is said that one prioritizes tax cuts for high-income earners. I wonder which tax increases the Social Democrats want to make for high-income earners. If we look at the breakpoint for the state tax, we see that it is exactly as high in the Social Democrats' shadow budget as it is in the government's budget for 2024. I do not know which tax increases the Social Democrats want to make for high-income earners.
The last thing I want to say is that it is said that there are now a lot of layoffs going on all around. We have dug a bit deeper into that. There are not a lot of layoffs in Welfare Sweden. It is clear that it is possible to find one or another municipality that is laying off staff. That one can, of course, always do. But some mass layoffs are actually not taking place in Swedish welfare. I think it is important to say that so as not to give fuel to any false narratives that people fall for and which do not exist.
Sanna Backeskog (S)
Madam Speaker! As the ultimate responsible politician or official for an activity, it is indeed possible to hold on and endure and wait for better times, as representatives from this government have suggested. But Gävleborg's and Sweden's children and young people cannot wait, because their childhood is now. Gävleborg's and Sweden's elderly cannot wait, because their right to a secure old age is ongoing right here and now.
It is now that Joel and his family need support and interventions from parental support, the school, community life, and field workers. It is now that Kerstin is living her last active years in life and needs community and companionship. It is now that Anna and her children are living under death threats from a violent man and urgently need a safe place. Then one cannot wait.
It is now that Andreas Jansson, whom we could read about in Gävletidningarna, with a bipolar diagnosis, needs the furniture workshop in Aktivitetshuset in Gävle. It is the place that has been the safety that has allowed him to take steps out of his major exhaustion depression. It is now Hasse who has a sick wife who needs relative support and respite housing.
Madam Speaker! To say that the coming years look better is not quite sufficient. We in this chamber can absolutely hold on and endure, but those who need our strong welfare the most cannot.
I would like to thank the Minister for the debate. It was very engaging to listen to experiences from municipal politics and how eager one is to invest in what the heart is full of.
I want to conclude not by asking something, but by welcoming the minister to Gävleborg and to our municipalities and the welfare we have there, which we are so proud of but are also so worried about right now. We must keep our fingers crossed that a necessary supplement will come to Kommunsverige in the autumn budget, if not sooner.
Statsrådet Erik Slottner (KD)
Madam Speaker! I also want to thank you for the debate, which we have had several times in the chamber. I also want to thank you for the invitation to Gävleborg. I was there not too long ago, but I would gladly return.
These are naturally important issues. The municipalities and regions are the heart of the welfare we offer the citizens. It is also why the government nevertheless uses such a large part of the reform space available to precisely the welfare sector and to municipalities and regions. One third of the reform space went to this in our first budget. In this year's budget, 40 percent of our reform space went to this.
Since then, the municipalities naturally have their own homework to do. It is a matter of adapting the suit to a new reality, being focused on core activities, and using digitalization and the possibilities of new technology to be able to cut costs and streamline operations.
We need to help each other. But I mean that the state is doing its part through the very large increases in government grants that have been made. I know the situation is tough. The situation is probably toughest in 2024. In 2025 and 2026, it looks significantly better.
It is also for that reason that we are now making the special supplement in the year-end budget to the regions. We see that the economic pressure in the regions is the greatest of all. The municipalities' finances look better than the regions'. It is also for that reason that the government has chosen to place a special focus on the regions and healthcare.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.