Public administration reform – again in the spotlight

The planned reform of public administration puts local mayors at odds with the political leaders in Bucharest.

Bogdan Matei, 11.02.2026, 14:00

First mentioned by the government last summer, the reform of the Romanian public administration is still a fuzzy issue half a year later, despite it being championed as one of the magic solutions for cutting the budget deficit. The representatives of local mayors eventually met on Tuesday, in Bucharest, to discuss the measures that the coalition government plans to adopt. They almost all of them said the move risks blocking the activity of the local administration and that the development of the municipalities cannot be achieved with limited funds.

Liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan conveyed to them, once again, that the next period will bring budgetary constraints and difficult decisions, against the backdrop of excessive deficit, which the government has committed to address. He emphasised that there must be a formula for balancing the budget, so that the municipalities with very low incomes can still provide basic services to citizens. Bolojan also explained why local taxes have gone up, even as much as three times in some places:

“An important component that we have encountered during this period and that you are primarily affected by are local taxes. We can no longer maintain the previous level. Why? Revenues from property tax in Romania accounts for about 0.55% of GDP, while in European Union countries the average is 1.85%, so at least three times higher. We can no longer maintain this level. However, no one is obviously happy about paying extra taxes, extra telephone fees, parking fees and so on.”

The government no longer has the capacity to channel so many funds to local public administrations, the prime minister concluded. In some cities and communes across the country, citizens have already stormed mayors’ offices to complain about the hikes in taxes and fees. The speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and leader of the Social Democrats, Sorin Grindeanu, who attended the debate in Bucharest, says mayors are being unjustly vilified:

“I would like us to leave aside triumphalist speeches and talk openly about the elephants in the room. More recently, we’ve seen attempts, carried out with intention and through all means available, to vilify local mayors.”

Grindeanu also says that the taxes and fees collected must be used by the local municipalities to finalise the projects already underway. Analysts say the whole issue is difficult to solve. They point out that, so far most villages and small towns, often poor, have been dependent on funding from the state budget, but that politicians at the top are dependent on local votes, which only well-motivated mayors can bring to the party.