Top Social Democrat Sven Mikser has said that Tallinn should not compete with Estonia's smaller municipalities and cities because it is not a fair fight and the result will be marginalization.
The subject was policy prescriptions ahead of local elections in October, and the program was ETV's "Foorum." Mikser said that "ping pong" between Tallinn and the state had curtailed development of the local government system and could continue to do so.
"It's not normal when Tallinn tries to compete with Estonia. We shouldn't have that. Tallinn is a part of Estonia. And Tallinn shouldn't compete with small municipalities, which is what it is doing in the case of public transport established only for Tallinners."
Tallinn's deputy mayor Arvo Sarapuu (Center Party), also a panelist, went along with it, calling on other cities and municipalities to up their game. He argued that Tallinn actually got things done.
"If a person says he has nowhere to park and the problem gets resolved, that is an accomplishment. Local governments can't be about distant pipe dreams, they have to be the instance where people come and get their problem resolved," said Sarapuu.
He called on other local governments to do the same. "Perform the same feats, arrange the things exactly like we did, no matter what has become of the local government revenue base," he said. But Mikser argued that the 5,000-7,000 people who registered as Tallinn residents in order to enjoy free transport in fact represented lost revenue for other local governments, and not just the ones next to Tallinn
"These are people from much more distant and worse-off local government units who have registered as Tallinners to enjoy some benefits. And for Tallinn to say, be like us, is cynical in this sense. If Kareda municipality gets a bus route from one end of the territory to another for one euro a head, no one will come and register as a Kareda resident.
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