Iceland’s government is getting ready to tighten its belt again. So whose facing the chopping block?
The Governmental Budget Optimisation Group (Hagræðingarhópur ríkisstjórnarinnar), a committee with representatives from every party in parliament, has for the past few months been reviewing where the government can cut spending. Today, they completed their report (.pdf file) and have made some recommendations. Amongst them are:
Reviewing how campaign finance and political donations currently function.
Withdrawing a recent spending increase to providing aid to developing nations.
To either shrink the universities, or combine them into one.
Combining the Central Bank and the Financial Supervisory Authority into one institution.
Putting the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, the Iceland Dance Company, the opera and the National Theatre under one management.
Shortening the length of time it takes to graduate from secondary school.
Shortening the length of time the unemployed receive unemployment insurance payments.
The group believes these cuts, amongst others, could save the government as much as 10 billion ISK. However, the proposal is only a draft – it can, and probably will, be edited numerous times in parliament and committee before put to a final vote, probably some time next year.
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