The municipal Duma adopted the city’s budget for 2007 after the second reading today. The budget scheme has not actually changed against the first reading. The profits come to 13.451bn RUR, the expenses come to 14.753bn RUR, with the budget deficit thus amounting to 1.302bn RUR, or 9.9% of the profits. This is expected to be covered by the income from the land auctions and due to regional and federal subsidies. Some changes in the spending patterns have been made to the budget in the course of the second reading, for example, the sums of money to be used for pension subsidies for former local government employees and for housing bills compensation for adults and children with disabilities went up by 16m RUR and 10.273m RUR, respectively.

Some investments were redistributed, including, for instance, the 5.708m RUR transferred from the city council to the municipal Duma; the communal facilities expenses will go down 3m RUR; this money will be used to inform the population about the changes made to the housing legislation instead. Social benefits for the city dwellers and socially important organizations will increase by 160m RUR, including 57.172m RUR to be spent on the municipal pension subsidies, 137m RUR to cover the transport fares for the pensioners, and approximately 25m to provide discounts on the land-tax for the owners of garden allotments and garages.