Members of the Mykolaiv City Council did not approve the «Public Budget» for 2026–2028

Deputies of the Mykolaiv City Council did not approve the "Public Budget" for 2026–2028. Archive photo: NikVesti

Deputies of the Mykolaiv City Council did not approve the decision to approve the «Public Budget» programme for 2026–2028.

The issue was considered during the session on 26 February, according to NikVesti.

As is known, the public budget in Mykolaiv was introduced in September 2017 — it is a mechanism that allows residents to propose their projects and influence the distribution of part of the city budget. Mykolaiv City Council member and chair of the commission on legality Olena Kiseliova said that today there are enough grants that can be implemented by the public.

«I can tell you more than anyone else about the public budget. [...] At that time, the budget commission was solely responsible for distributing the city's budget, including through deputy requests, and it was a kind of pocket institution. Therefore, the public budget became an alternative in decision-making on the distribution of the city's budget. As of now, I can say frankly that this situation has changed radically. Today, there is no objective need for training on budget distribution or the possibility of attracting other funds to the community. Today, there are enough grants and enough other donor programmes. Today, the public is sometimes more knowledgeable than the deputies. Therefore, hiding behind the public budget is no longer relevant. The years 2026 and 2027, and I think the near future, will be years of overwhelming challenges. We will have a constant problem with filling the budget and meeting expenditure,» said Olena Kiseliova.

Session of the Mykolaiv City Council. Photo: NikVesti

Olena Kiseliova proposed imposing a moratorium on the public budget in 2026, since, in her opinion, holding competitions this year would be «irrational», and the resources spent and «the energy of officials will not bring results».

«It is unreasonable to hold the competitions that are being proposed to us today in 2026 so that they can possibly be funded in 2027. It is unreasonable for two reasons. Firstly, human energy is spent on holding these competitions, and not only human energy; the days of officials who should be working in other areas are wasted, a certain movement is created, certain victories and betrayals are created. The outcome of this activity is zero. Therefore, it is advisable to listen to fellow councillors who have proposed to conduct detailed monitoring of the 2022 project, to make a possibly unpopular decision, to exclude and delete those that are not really relevant today,» said Olena Kiseliova.

She added that today it is worth directing the spending of public budget funds «to more important things» for the city.

«Next, we need to work with the public budget trend and, as harsh as it may sound, decide on priorities. For some, the priority may be a festival. Because the process is very good: they wrote down some three kopecks for a chocolate bar. That is, people can spend money when they have it. But we, as the authorities, have to decide on the areas of spending. If we say that the main thing today is security, and security means shelters and LED traffic lights that do not depend on the power being cut off during a blackout. That is, we can direct the spending of the public budget towards more important things for the city. I propose imposing a moratorium on the public budget in 2026. We all understand that there are no funds for this year to implement the programme. Next, we need to sort out 2022,» added Olena Kiseliova.

Olena Kiseliova, member of the Mykolaiv City Council, chair of the commission on legality. Screenshot from the online broadcast YouTube channel of the Mykolaiv City Council

In turn, Yurii Stepanets, a member of the Mykolaiv City Council from the Servant of the People party, spoke in favour of approving the «Public Budget» programme, since, in his opinion, the city's residents support its return.

«I have heard colleagues who are partly for and partly against, in particular with loud statements about a moratorium on the public budget. Of course, every deputy, speaking one way or another, represents their electorate, those who voted for them, and forms their speech based on the wishes of the community that they express. There were discussions, appeals, and interviews with city residents who were in favour of bringing back this programme. Today, in my opinion, the priority is to consider the projects that were to be implemented in 2022. The argument was made that there are many organisations and charitable foundations. Yes, they exist, but again, this is a situation where we are told that international funds have refused to allocate funds for ramps and projects for people with disabilities. So where is the political will of the community? If donors do not have money, then the city does not take on this responsibility either. In my opinion, a public budget is necessary. We understand that our community lacks e-democracy. Residents know what they need and to what extent. Moratorium is a very loud word, it must be taken into account, especially when communicating with residents who voted for you. The people who voted for me say that it is necessary,» said Yurii Stepanets.

Olena Kiseliova responded that there is no point in spending resources on future projects that may or may not be funded, as there is a «hole» in the budget.

«We cannot hold a competition today knowing that it will not be funded. This is mysticism, this is manipulation, because it is clear that today's challenges are one thing, in 2026 they will be another, and in 2027 they will be yet another. Therefore, the competition should be held with the definition of priorities for the city's development, even through the public budget in the current financial situation. If the deputies know today that there is a real hole in the budget and it is impossible to finance the works selected in 2022, then why spend resources on paying officials and holding events, in particular the public budget, for some future that is unknown whether it will be financed? We must take responsibility, including for unpopular decisions. Being «good for everyone» is a good populist trend, but when it comes to traffic safety, we need to decide: in 2026, only projects related to the safety of city residents will be funded. And then we will not have to answer questions about why there is no money for a certain road because a bench was installed somewhere,» replied Olena Kiseliova.

So, 22 deputies voted «for», 2 «against», and 7 «abstained» out of 31 present. The decision was not adopted.

Members of the Mykolaiv City Council did not approve the "Public Budget" for 2026-2028. Screenshot from the online broadcast YouTube channel of the Mykolaiv City Council

We would like to remind you that at the meeting of the budget committee on 27 January, the further implementation of the public budget was also discussed. According to Tetiana Shulichenko, in 2026, the implementation of new projects within this programme is not planned — only the acceptance of initiatives, competitive selection and voting are planned. The first implementation of new projects is proposed to begin in 2027, for which the programme plans to allocate 21 million hryvnias.

According to Tetiana Shulichenko, all participatory budget projects have been implemented, except for those planned for 2022, which is due to the start of full-scale war. For these projects, a mechanism for implementation through the relevant city target programmes of the respective chief administrators has been proposed, subject to the availability of funding.

Mykolaiv public budget

It should be recalled that in September 2017, deputies of the Mykolaiv City Council approved the Regulation «On the Public Budget of the City of Mykolaiv». The city introduced a mechanism for involving the public in the distribution of funds from the city budget of Mykolaiv.

In 2018, Mykolaiv residents selected their first project as part of the "Public Budget." Nine large and nineteen small projects were selected as winners and shared 10 million hryvnias among themselves. For more information on the fate of the losing projects, please refer to the NikVesti article. Subsequently, Mykolaiv residents proposed 111 projects for implementation in 2020 as part of the Community Budget.

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In 2021, Mykolaiv residents submitted 166 ideas as part of the «Mykolaiv Public Budget for 2022» programme, 125 of which were admitted to the vote. The winners were 40 projects with a total value of 20,347,980 thousand hryvnias. Among them were 12 large, 21 small, and seven social projects.

However, during the martial law in 2022, no funds were allocated from the local budget for capital projects. And since the «Public Budget» provides for such expenses, the implementation of all ideas was temporarily suspended.

In 2025, the Mykolaiv City Council, in collaboration with Save the Children International, held a «Youth Community Budget» competition.

As is known, in Mykolaiv, approximately 16 million hryvnias are needed to implement the public budget projects that were selected in 2021 but not implemented due to the outbreak of full-scale war.