Hammering away at the Enfranchisement bill
This week the Sejm's treasury and finance committees are due to start hashing out the latest version of the controversial enfranchisement law passed by the Senate earlier this month.
Despite having to work through roughly 70 amendments introduced by the upper house of Parliament, legislators last week predicted the bill would breeze through the committees and reach a full house for a vote scheduled on Sept. 6.
"I think it will move as quickly as possible," said Jan Wyrowinski, a Freedom Union (UW) deputy from Torun who serves as deputy chair of the treasury committee.
One of the bill's major proponents, Solidarity Election Action (AWS) deputy Tomasz Wojcik, said the bill would probably land on President Aleksander Kwasniewski's desk sometime in the first half of September. The president will then have 21 days to make a decision.
"I think that it will (be on the president's desk) a few days after the vote," Wojcik said.
Viewed as a way to compensate citizens for the wrongs of the communist era, the universal enfranchisement act would make it possible for average citizens to acquire state assets free of charge. Under the law passed by the Sejm on July 14, tenants in residential cooperatives and renters of city or treasury-owned property would have the right to take ownership of their flats at no cost. For citizens who have already purchased their apartments or otherwise do not qualify for direct enfranchisement, they will be entitled to receive enfranchisement coupons that can either be invested in a National Enfranchisement Fund, or in the case of farmers, be used to receive land from the treasury's agricultural land agency (AWRSP).
The bill precludes transfer of ownership in cases where property is subject to restitution claims.
While the law is not expected to meet serious obstacles in Parliament, the enfranchisement law has become a source of deep conflict in Polish society. Despite some 70 amendments to the law by the Senate, the bill in its present form continues to spark controversy and the pressure is growing on Kwasniewski to either veto the bill or direct it to the constitutional tribunal in hopes that the law will be declared unconstitutional.
"From the point of view of the economy, this law is not good," said Krzysztof Rybinski, chief economist at ING Barings Polska.
The Polish Confederation of Private Employers (PKPP), an organization that comprises roughly 2,000 companies from across the country, agrees. "The enfranchisement law passed by the Sejm and amended by the Senate is bad," the PKPP said in a written statement. "In reality it serves as a kind of election candy that under the guise of social justice will deepen injustice." The PKPP is calling for the president to veto the bill.
Others see things differently. "I am a measured supporter of the idea with all the (potential) problems," said Pawel Szalamacha, an employee with the Adam Smith Research Centre.
The final version of the law accepted by the Senate was substantially different than the draft bill passed in the Sejm last month. Despite pressure from the National Garden Allotment Association, senators opted to encompass tenants of small garden plots in the enfranchisement process. The upper house also excluded buildings registered as historical monuments from enfranchisement.
Despite the changes, the bill is still subject to harsh criticism. "It doesn't matter whether there are 50, 100 or 150 amendments, it's a bad idea," Rybinski said.
In particular, Rybinski said that the law could slow down the privatization process. Investor interest in acquiring state-owned companies could sour once companies realize that they will have to become joint owners with the state. If the law comes on the books, 7% of the shares of all privatized companies will be invested in the National Enfranchisement Fund, the financial institute that will manage indirect enfranchisement assets. "Private owners who might be interested in buying assets being privatized might not do so eagerly because they will end up becoming co-owners with the state," he said.
Rybinski added that the law could lead to decreased revenue for local government budgets and worsen the public sector deficit.
"The sale of municipal apartments was a source of income for many cities," Rybinski said. "If that law comes into effect, that source of income will disappear."
Over the past 10 years, Krakow alone has sold some 13,000 municipal-owned apartments. According to city hall, in 1999 revenue from the sale of 2,228 apartments brought an added zl. 43 million ($10 million) into the city's coffers. That's slightly more than 3% of overall revenue reported by Krakow in the 2000/2001 edition of City Guide Polska.
On a national scale, more than 5% of revenue flowing into cities' budgets comes from the sale of communal apartments, according to Andrzej Porawski, director of the Union of Polish Cities, (ZMP), an organization of 270 municipalities from across the country.
"That's 1/20th of our revenue, which will disappear overnight," Porawski said. "If someone wants to deprive us of 5% of our income, we will of course protest."
But not everyone shares a doomsday view of the draft bill. Despite certain imperfections, the bill stands to create a culture based on private property, Szalamacha said. "This law will create the possibilities for private ownership to be dispersed among a large number of citizens, which creates the basis for independence and a minimal level of dignity," he said. "People won't just be the proletariat at the behest of people in power, they will have something of their own. That is a social goal worth having."
