Without much resistance, the Alesp (Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo) approved on Tuesday night (20) a budget of R$ 315 billion for São Paulo in 2023. There were 41 votes in favor and 9 against, all from the PT.
In opposition to the elected governor, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), the PSOL was also against the budget project, but opted for obstruction because it calculated that the government base would not be able to obtain a quorum of 48 people for the vote.
21,000 amendments were presented to the project, which had the rapporteurship of Deputy Delegate Olim (PP) in the Finance, Planning and Budget Commission. He met with Tarcísio’s transition team in recent days to receive budget indications.
One of the highlights taken by the transition team was the allocation of R$ 200 million to the Bolsa do Povo Estudante program, an aid to students to combat school dropout. Another was the allocation of BRL 30 million to assistance from the Mutirões de Saúde program.
“Tarcísio asked for funds to help students go to college and invested heavily in housing, made some changes to work in this sector in the future”, says Olim.
The deputy added: “We left a lot of room for him to change the Budget afterwards.”
One of the main criticisms of the opposition to Tarcísio is that the funds for these relocations will come from areas that are also important and will not be properly discussed with the Assembly. For them, Tarcísio will have a kind of blank check next year to allocate resources.
The PT voted against the project for several reasons, among them the tax exemption for large economic groups, which according to the legend could supply areas such as health and education, due to the lack of dialogue that it claims to have with the future government and due to the breach of a verbal agreement . The party helped to approve the increase in the salary of the future governor and in the civil service ceiling since the the rapporteurship readjusted the salary floor of civil servants in the Budget, which did not occur.
“It’s a blank check to make changes next year without the Assembly being able to discuss whether it takes money from one area or another. Tarcísio did not appoint deputies to dialogue on budget construction, he did not have an interlocutor to deal with the bill most important in the House”, says deputy Paulo Fiorilo (PT).
Also on the contrary, PSOL points out similar criticisms. “It was a surprisingly quick and amateur vote”, says deputy Mônica Seixas.
For her, Tarcísio’s budget for the first year does not confront social problems with the same dimension as infrastructure works. “What has been an increase in works. It will even build bridges and asphalt. Rodrigo Garcia sent a tailored budget to Tarcísio”, he says.
The final document approved by Alesp earmarks BRL 49.3 billion for education, BRL 29 billion for health and BRL 27.3 billion for public safety. The investments announced by the government amount to R$ 31 billion, of which R$ 6.8 billion for the Secretariat of Logistics and Transport.
Of the parliamentary amendments presented, those that allocate R$ 1.9 billion for basic health care directed to municipalities and philanthropic entities, R$ 30 million for Civil Defense, R$ 40 million for Civil Police, R$ 6 million for preparation of agents and R$ 3.8 million for the Military Fire Department.
