The Skopje City Council has voted through the budget revision. The core budget rises by 61.76 million denars to 5,324,649,755 denars - around 86.6 million euros.

The biggest new project is a bridge and street connecting Gjorche Petrov and Saraj. The development programme sets aside 420 million denars for it. The goal, according to mayor Orce Gjorgjievski, is to create a new entrance to Skopje.

Where the money goes

Besides the bridge, the revision allocates 61 million denars for projects linked to the European Capital of Culture - Skopje 2028, and 25 million denars for reconstructing smaller streets in the city's municipalities. Ten million denars are set aside for clearing landfills.

There is also money for oncology patients. By the start of August, 1,265 valid applications had arrived and all were paid out, and the mayor promised there will be funds for everyone who applies by the end of the year.

Secondary schools get new desks and chairs, IT equipment and classroom equipment, and playgrounds and fitness zones are being funded too. A ski weekend for secondary school pupils has been announced, following the summer camp.

The number that tells the debt story

Gjorgjievski claims that while the budget grows, liabilities are falling. As of 27 August, the total liabilities of the city, the public enterprises, the cultural institutions and the secondary schools are down by 60.2 million euros.

Among the public enterprises, the biggest reduction is at the water and sewage utility - 1.66 billion denars. At the city transport company JSP Skopje the reduction is 634.9 million denars, and at the municipal sanitation company 122 million denars. Some cultural institutions are entirely debt-free.

Capital spending in the second quarter reached 706.3 million denars. The mayor claims that is more than the total spending across the first three quarters of the opening years of Petre Shilegov's and Danela Arsovska's terms combined.

Who is supplying the numbers

This is worth pausing on. All of this data - the budget growth, the falling liabilities, the comparison with previous mayors - comes from the mayor's own announcements. That does not make it inaccurate. It means it has not been published by an independent source, in a city administration going through a pre-election year.

JSP liabilities falling by 634.9 million denars is serious news if accurate, because this is the company whose transport tens of thousands of people use every day. The question the revision does not answer is whether the number of buses rolling out on the routes tomorrow morning has fallen along with the debt.