For the first time in twelve years Sweden has seen a change of govern-ment. When the result of this September's parliamentary election was announced, it was clear that the Social-Democrats had to leave office to be replaced by the Alliansen, an Alliance of four conservative and liberal parties.
On the 16th of October, the new government formed by Moderaterna (The Moderate Party (m), Centerpartiet (the Centre Party (c) Kristdemokraterna (The Christ Democrats (kd) and Folkpartiet (The Liberal Party (fp), presented its first budget. Here they clearly stated their intention to reduce the number and importance of state-owned companies in Sweden. At the same time however, Maud Olofsson (c), the Minister of Industry, reiterated that two of the major companies, the power company Vattenfall and the mining company LKAB, would remain state-owned.
In addition, the new government has also confirmed that four government authorities will be closed down from July 1st next year. They are as follows, Arbetslivsinstitutet (The National Institute for Working Life), Djurskyddsmyndigheten (Swedish Animal Welfare Agency), Myndigheten för skolutveckling (The SwedishNational Agency for School Improvement) and Integrationsverket (Swedish Integration Board). Previously, The Moderate Party also had plans to close the Glesbygdsverket (Swedish National Rural Development Agency); however the current budget proposal contained no mention of this.
One of the decisions taken by the previous government was to relocate Riksantikvarieämbetet (The National Heritage Board), and Riksutställningar (Swedish Travelling Exhibitions), from Stockholm to Gotland. These plans are now however rather uncertain, as no funds have been allocated in the budget proposal to finance the move. According to the new government however, the plans remain unchanged. Sweden's 21 länsarbetsnämnder (County Market Boards) will also be closed down and their main tasks will be transferred to Arbetsmarknadsstyrelsen (The National Labour Market Board). Similarly, from the first of January 2007 the Sameting will be the central administration authority for the reindeer industry.
The new government has announced that it will use public-private partnerships to finance the country's infrastructure. Through this approach, state authorities will commission private companies to finance, build and maintain roads or railroads. Profits and cost-compensations will primarily be paid through road-tolls and other fees. The government argues that PPP can realize investments sooner than would otherwise be possible.
In 2002, the previous government decided that in order to improve the national rail-system a new link under the city of Stockholm, called Citybanan was needed. The total cost was estimated to be 14 billion Swedish crowns, with construction having already begun.
The new government however thinks the costs are too high, and has thus decided to investigate alternatives, for example more tracks at ground level. At the same time, Banverket, the authority for rail traffic in Sweden, has been ordered to continue with the project, but to work within strict financial restrictions.
This year Stockholm also went through a trial period with congestion tolls on all roads into the city. It seems now that also the new government will reintroduce and maintain the tolls in one way or another. Part of the challenge here is to reach equitable agreements with the municipalities neighbouring Stockholm.
The new government is also planning to change the general system of government subsidies given to municipalities and county councils. This became clear in an inquiry presented to Mats Odell (kd), Minister of Local Government and Financial Markets, where it was proposed that the 38 municipalities in the city regions will receive a specific wage supplement. The argument is that the generally higher wage levels and the very high cost of housing in cities need to be taken into account. At present, wages for public employees in Swedish city municipalities are ten percentage points higher as compared to those in less central regions. For county councils, we see a similar difference of some six percentage points.
Under the current system, municipalities and county councils with high-income earners have to give money to municipalities and city councils with low-income earners. The suggestion is that a total of 1.2 billion SEK of these transfers will be relocated. 1.1 billion SEK will go to the 25 municipalities in the county of Stockholm. The county council of Stockholm will receive 336 million of the 360 million crowns that are to be relocated.
By Therese Thorén