Warsaw Mayor looks at ways to get city deficit more under control

Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski wants to lower the city's 2003 budget deficit from the expected zl. 1 billion to zl. 400 million, as otherwise it would get close to the limit allowed by law. According to a Rzeczpospolita analysis, the city has a debt amounting to zl. 1.5 billion, the highest in the country, but has only a 30% debt to planned revenues ratio for 2002, which is the lowest of all councils. "We plan to limit our investment expenditures by zl. 100 million. Administrative cost will also be cut by by tens of million zloty as these alone amount to zl. 620 million," Kaczynski told a press conference. He added that an additional zl. 150 million would be obtained from improving the condition of capital held in bank accounts, which could be achieved by merging separate accounts into one. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B3) M.M.