Kythira Municipality Budgetary Plan 2025 at €52,000,000

Kythira Municipality Budgetary Plan 2025 at €52,000,000

ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΕΚΔΟΣΗ | ENGLISH VERSION

During the sessions of the Municipal Council on Friday, January 24th, 2025, the Technical Program and the Annual Budget for Kythira Municipality for the year 2025 were approved with the positive votes of the municipal majority, while the minority, although it had approved the Budget a few days earlier at the Municipal Committee session (decision 09/2025), chose to vote “no” during the Council session on the same matter.

The Budget Report for 2025, a detailed financial blueprint amounting to 52,000,000, was presented to the Council by the Mayor, Mr. Stratos Charhalakis. In his Report the Mayor emphasized on the large-scale funding for public works projects being carried out on Kythira and Antikythera, following the methodical and good governance of the Municipal Administration.

Since being elected to Office and assuming the administration of the Municipality on September 1st, 2014, and up to today, in his third term, Mr Charchalakis has successfully secured funding for projects in the Kythira Municipality exceeding 77,000,000.

Specifically, the Municipality of Kythira has received the following funding from 2014 to the present being for numerous developmental works, most of which are either completed or under construction:

    PHILODIMOS (Ministry of Interior): 3,700,408  

–    P.E.P. ATTICA (Region of Attica): 325,793  

–    P.D.E. (Ministry of Interior): 1,930,400  

–    TPkD (Ministry of Interior): 85,000  

–    CLLD/LEADER: 476,520  

–    GREEN FUND: 624,132.80  

–    ATTICA REGION: 29,528,357.50  

–    TRITSI PROGRAM (Ministry of Interior): 4,430,424.39  

–    MINISTRY OF DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENTS: 255,816.48  

–    EU RECOVERY FUND: 35,744,357.88  

–    OFYPEKA (Ministry of Environment): 45,000  

   MINISTRY OF MIGRATION AND ASYLUM: 74,400  

The above listed funding amounts do not include the projects that are annually executed with the Municipality’s own funds, such as local roadworks, water supply networks, repairs to municipal properties, local renovations, etc.

In addition to all the mandatory expenses for the operation of the Municipality, such as its public services and infrastructure, the 2025 Budgetary Plan includes funding for significant expenditures with emphasis on social and community services such as: increased funding for the Childrens Day Care Center and the Social Grocery Store, rent subsidies for rural doctors (for the sixth consecutive year) and rent subsidies for municipal employees who do not have housing on Kythira. In order to financially support educators on our island, the Municipality’s Budgetary Plan, for the first time in 2025, provides for rent subsidies for teachers in primary and secondary education thus extending and improving the delivery of education services. This additional budgetary assistance also provides an incentive for educators to accept teaching positions on the island.

The Municipality wishes to inform Kythirian citizens that increased expenditures are foreseen for water supply and waste management for Kythira as well as an amount of 50,000 for urban planning services from the Urban Planning Department of Piraeus Municipality. As of January 1, 2025, these services are no longer provided free of charge to municipalities who do not have their own urban planning services.

It should be noted that the financing and implementation of such a large number of projects in our Municipality is the result of a collective effort.  The Mayor and his elected Councillors, employees of the Municipality and external collaborators together form a dynamic team advocating for resources and the efficient delivery of services with the sole aim of improving the quality of life for residents and visitors.

Prior to the Agenda items of the two Municipal Council sessions (the approval of the Budget is deliberated and discussed in a special Council meeting), the Mayor presented to Councillors a detailed briefing on the progress of all the infrastructure projects on the island in addition to giving an update on Council issues and responding to related questions. It should be noted that, following the implementation of the new model regulation for the operation of Municipal Councils, published in the Government Gazette on January 21st, 2025, the stage of briefings and questions before the agenda items, which used to take place during Council sessions, is abolished (article 11, paragraph 2 of Y.A. 2804/FEK 109/B/21-01-2025), as the Government enacted legislation for a special procedure for bi-monthly accountability, where all elected officials have the right to ask questions to the Municipal Administration.

The Mayor, Mr. Charhalakis, highlighted the new projects funded by the Attica Region in our Municipality: the Municipal Abattoir (2,728,000), the Restoration of Potamos, (1,400,000), the completion of the Municipal Open Theatre in Potamos (950,000), as well as the increased funding for the New Day Care Centre in Logothetianika (350,000).  The Mayor emphasized that his and the Municipal Administration’s policy of utilizing resources in the study and maturation of important projects was yielding excellent results.

The Mayor announced he expects to hire an additional six permanent employees taking advantage of a new Government recruitment program.   

Finally, regarding the issue of funding of the airport study, the Mayor briefed Councillors on a meeting he had had with the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Mr. Vasilis Oikonomou, at which it was agreed that the Special Ecological Evaluation Study, which is a prerequisite for the airport study, should be undertaken by the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) and the supervising Ministry as the relevant state agencies for airports. The Mayor added that he had submitted a related request for funding for the studies to the relevant Deputy Minister. Regarding what was said in a recent Regional Council meeting about the need for the Council to decide on the feasibility of the project, the Mayor emphasized that such a request had never been made until now, despite the fact that the Attica Region has funded projects and studies in our Municipality amounting to over 29.5 million in the past decade. In any case, the Municipality considers the airport project a top priority as long as the State continues to support the funding of the infrastructure necessary for the island’s tourist expansion and growth (water supply, sewage, roadworks, port infrastructure, etc.) thus ensuring Kythera’s development remains sustainable and does not endanger the natural, built, and human-made environment of the island, which has been its competitive advantage for many decades.

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