On the occasion of celebrating the Day of the Municipality of Gvozd, on 5 October 2015, in the presence of numerous guests, a session of the Municipal Council of the Municipality of Gvozd was held. The session was opened by the President of the Municipal Council, Dugošija Pavo. The session was attended by the heads of Municipalities of Krnjak, Barilović, Lasinja, Vojnić and Sunja, Deputy Mayor of Topusko, Deputy Prefect Rkman Boro, Member of Parliament representing the Serbian national minority Mile Horvat, Head of Municipality of Velika Kladuša Behrić Edin, representatives of the Orthodox Church and representatives of institutions of state authority with the Municipality of Gvozd.
The session was also attended by the Civil Rights Project Sisak.
The Head of the Municipality of Gvozd Branko Jovičić addressed the session, outlining the situation in the area of the municipality. Billing of the direct tax revenue of local communities in the semi-annual period of the present year fell by almost half of the revenue of the last year during the same period.
The recession, on the global scale as well as on the local level, was pointed out as a “culprit” of the existing problems. Mr. Jovičić stated that the local authorities conducted an exhaustive research on the actual number of residents in the municipality through the different age and professional structures including pensioners, unemployed, students, beneficiaries of social welfare and others. The conclusion of the research has not given encouraging results. Finally, it was pointed out that despite all the problems at the local level, the Municipality of Gvozd is still functioning without borrowing any financial means.
The Head of the Municipality of Vojnić, Nebojša Andrić praised the work of the Mayor of the Municipality of Gvozd and other municipal heads who are in a difficult situation because of falling revenues. He expressed the not-so-good side of the new tax policy regarding the central government to local communities.
Deputy Prefect Rkman Boro, who is representing the Serbian national minority, stated that a solution for improving the existing situation in areas with majority Serb population would be found and that the conditions of living in some rural places are devastating, e.g. nonexistent electrification, water supply and adequate roads. Boro Rkman concluded that these places did not have any infrastructure.
Member of Parliament from the Serbian national minority, Mile Horvat, stated that there had been much more achieved in the mandate of the previous government then in the case of the present one. He pointed out the negative side of the tax reform which came into force in early 2015 and the need to implement decentralization. The local governments such as the Municipality of Gvozd are most affected by these negative trends. At the end, he concluded that some of the local mayors are real artists for surviving in spite of the recession policy that had struck them.
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