By: Dr Štefan Šumah
In the year 2021, revenues to the state budget from income tax amounted to 1.53 billion euros, while non-governmental organisations received from direct and indirect budget users (ministries, municipalities, FURS, public agencies, and institutes) 482.54 million euros, or 31.54 percent of the funds (in 2018, this was approximately 15 percent) collected through income tax. The trend of increase continues under this government.
However, if we subtract non-governmental organisations that are genuinely of public importance, such as firefighters, Caritas, the Red Cross, and organisations important for the local community (various sports and cultural associations), we are left primarily with professional pumps of public funds, or simply put, parasites, who feed on our wallets.
Recent public tenders only confirm my claims. Millions for tenders here, millions there, millions for friends in rigged tenders, a million for Jenull’s anarchists, a million for Muki’s useless chatterers… Something similar to throwing money directly into the fire, no benefit from them. We, the citizens who finance all this, have no say in it. Millions are distributed without our oversight, carelessly, inefficiently, and often illegally.
That is why I wrote about this issue some time ago. However, recent events have only strengthened my conviction. Of course, if we must provide funding for NGOs, let the state at least allow us to decide which non-governmental organisation will receive it. I insist on this, on direct democracy, as it is ultimately my money! I repeat my proposal once again and hope that the new government (which will undoubtedly be right-wing) will implement it.
Now, everyone can voluntarily donate to any non-governmental organisation, as well as political parties, up to 1% of their income tax (when I first wrote about it, it was 0.5%). This option should be abolished. Financing of non-governmental organisations should also cease. Instead, a mandatory 15% donation from income tax should be introduced, but with the option for taxpayers to choose which organisation receives this donation. Each taxpayer should decide which organisations (up to, for example, five different ones) will receive 15% of their income tax.
With a plebiscitary aspect of such decision-making, it would quickly become apparent which organisations people recognise as useful, likable, interesting… in short, which are worthy of our trust and, of course, our money. It would also cause competition among non-governmental organisations, which would be forced to tailor their services to the direct users of these services.
In this case, the allocation of funds through direct democracy or the possibility of independent decision-making would likely be quite different from the current situation. Some organisations would flourish, while others would barely survive or even shut down. Various GONGO organisations (Tomorrow is Another Day, Peace Institute…) would probably have to weigh how much they are actually worth in the non-governmental organisation market. Probably nothing without direct feeding from the budgetary trough!
The non-governmental organisation market would function, it just needs to be established. This way, taxpayers would at least get something for their money if they have to involuntarily give it to non-governmental organisations. Some non-governmental organisations would thrive, some would wither, and some would just have to find new jobs. True, they would be much less paid than what they are used to in their non-governmental organisations, but life is cruel. People have decided. People are always right (even if they are wrong, you cannot replace them). And direct democracy, advocated by Jenull’s Voice of the People, will also work in practice.