The example of Carnikava and Ādaži

In the Carnikava school, 400 children are enrolled, and free lunches have been provided to all of them since 2008. There are one and a half thousand pupils in Ādaži, and it will not be possible to provide free lunches for such a large number. The same applies to bonuses for teachers. Carnikava used to pay its educators a 120 euro supplement to their salary. After the merger, the number of teachers is significantly higher. It is highly likely that such bonuses will no longer exist, or at least not to the same extent. The situation is similar with real estate tax and its discounts. The collection of tax differed in both municipalities, and now a golden mean must be found.

As for merging the municipal administrative structure, the first decisions have already been made. At the September meeting, it was decided to merge both social services and municipal police departments. And again – remuneration in the Carnikava police was higher, and it is perfectly clear that the new municipality does not have enough money to raise all expenditure items. As for the benefits of having one administration instead of two, they are not expected for the time being, as the newly presented municipal structure model outlines fourteen new staff positions. Thus, in practice, only the number of deputies will have decreased. In the view of Daiga Mieriņa, the Pierīga municipalities should not have been merged; they had different development directions and were self-sufficient: "There won't be any tragedy, but whether the residents will be satisfied is another story."