A proposal has been made to increase Mykolaiv’s budget by ₴783 million: over 408 million in grants

It is proposed that Mykolaiv’s budget revenue be increased by 783.1 million hryvnias. Of this, 357.7 million hryvnias is additional revenue generated by the city itself, and a further 17 million comes from the sale of municipal property. The city is set to receive a further 408.5 million hryvnias from the state and other local budgets.

This is stated in the explanatory note to the draft city council resolution on amending the Mykolaiv municipality’s budget for 2026 and in the Finance Department’s report on budget implementation as at 1 August, according to NikVesti.

Between January and July 2026, 3.36 billion hryvnias were received into the general fund of the budget, excluding transfers. This represents 110.6 per cent of the target for this period — actual revenue exceeded the planned figure by 322 million hryvnias.

Separately, the special fund received 44.3 million hryvnias over the seven months, excluding transfers and own revenues of budgetary institutions. This is 180 per cent of the annual target.

In particular, the city has already received 17.6 million hryvnias more than planned for the whole year from the disposal of municipally-owned property.

The largest increase in own revenue is expected to come from personal income tax. It is proposed to increase the personal income tax revenue target by 340.1 million hryvnias.

Of this amount, 322.4 million hryvnias are expected to be received following the annual income tax returns. A further 17.2 million hryvnias are expected to come from other sources of personal income, and 430,000 hryvnias from the income of specialists employed by the «Diia City» resident.

Overall, the general fund’s own revenue is set to increase by 357.7 million hryvnias.

Additional revenue is also expected from the profit tax on municipal enterprises — 3 million hryvnias, licences for the organisation of gambling — 3.04 million, the lease of municipal property — 1 million, land payments and other income.

A further 17 million hryvnias are planned to be added to the special fund through proceeds from the sale of municipal property.

At the same time, more than half of the total budget increase — 408.5 million hryvnias — consists not of the city’s own revenue, but of subventions and grants.

Key transfers include:

• 66.96 million hryvnias — for the fitting out of shelters in educational establishments;
• 57.54 million hryvnias — for the purchase of equipment and the modernisation of catering facilities in educational establishments;
• 11.55 million hryvnias — an additional education grant;
• 5.69 million hryvnias — for the implementation of the ‘New Ukrainian School’ programme;
• 9.34 million hryvnias — to improve the quality of hot meals and meals for primary school pupils;
• 102.03 million hryvnias — additional grants from the local budget;
• 65.77 million hryvnias — for meals for pupils at general secondary education institutions;
• 83.01 million hryvnias — for the payment of financial compensation for housing to certain categories of veterans and persons with war-related disabilities;
• 5.37 million hryvnias — for the establishment of housing funds for temporary and supported accommodation for evacuees and internally displaced persons;
• 4.32 million hryvnias — for the implementation of delegated expenditure in the field of education.

Separately, the draft resolution proposes increasing the budget reserve fund from 50 to 100 million hryvnias.

The budget shortfall in Mykolaiv

The city authorities have been discussing the issue of the budget deficit since the start of the year.

Back in January, Mykolaiv’s mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, stated that the city needed to receive around 1.1 billion hryvnias from the state budget. In May, the city council again appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers for an additional grant — this time amounting to 1.18 billion hryvnias.

Oleksandr Sienkevych explained at the time that the repeat request was linked, in particular, to the lack of a response from the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet of Ministers.

«We reached this decision as a result of the lack of feedback from the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet of Ministers. It was also due to changes in the composition of the Cabinet of Ministers and the appointment of a new Prime Minister. We are raising this issue once again regarding a situation that has not changed in any way since December 2025, when we were drawing up the budget with you. We are appealing to them again and, as they say, we now have more representatives from Mykolaiv Oblast in this Government. We very much hope that they will help us secure this grant, if not in full, then at least in part. However, it would be preferable for all matters relating to the grant to be funded,» said the mayor.

As early as August 2026, Deputy Prime, Vsevolod Chentsov, tasked the Ministry of Finance and a number of other departments with considering the Mykolaiv City Council’s request for an additional grant from the state budget and submitting proposals. The city is requesting 1.18 billion hryvnias to cover priority expenditure in 2026.

Meanwhile, on 6 August, the Mykolaiv City Council allocated nearly 45 million hryvnias to co-finance the installation of modular boiler houses. These funds became available thanks to the budget revenue exceeding the target for January–July. According to the Department of Finance, revenue performance over the seven-month period stood at 110.6 per cent.

However, these 44.95 million hryvnias do not resolve the overall deficit problem. The money will be allocated as a 10 per cent co-funding contribution towards the state programme for the installation of modular boiler houses in Mykolaiv. The total cost of the project is around 450 million hryvnias, of which around 400 million is to be provided by the state. The boiler houses are intended to serve as a backup heat source in the event of disruptions to the centralised heat supply.

Why, then, is the city not spending part of the allocated funds?

Against the backdrop of a municipal budget deficit, certain departments of the city council are simultaneously showing low budget execution rates. In particular, as of 1 August, the Capital Construction Department had spent 22 million hryvnias out of the 234.6 million hryvnias allocated for the year. This represents just 9.5 per cent of the department’s budget — the lowest figure among the city council’s departments.

On 4 August, Oleksandr Sienkevych asked the deputy mayor, Serhii Korenev, who coordinates the work of the Capital Construction Department, to report on the implementation of infrastructure projects.

The mayor himself attributed the low budget execution rate to the fact that the city is delaying payment for completed capital works due to a lack of funds. According to him, work on individual sites is approximately 40 per cent complete, but the city has not yet made the corresponding payments.

Dmytro Falco, Secretary of the Mykolaiv City Council, stated that Mykolaiv could run out of funds for some of its priority expenditure as early as November–December if the city does not receive additional funding from the state budget.