Civita proposes 50 billion in state cuts

State budget 2017Oslo.State budget 2017.Photo : Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix

The liberal think tank Civita proposes cuts in sick pay, one year shorter time spent in primary school, removal of stay-at-home-parent cash and a lower ceiling on unemployment benefits to reduce government spending by 50 billion.

‘We believe cuts in government expenditure will force their way in, and spending will continue to be reduced’, said economist Haakon Riekeles of Civita to newspaper Dagens Næringsliv.

He expects that the proposals, to be presented in a new note, will be considered controversial.

But Civita believes government spending cannot continue to increase at the same rate in coming years.

Under the proposals, the state would save some 18 billion by cutting sick pay to 80 percent of salary for all sick leave. Meanwhile, it is proposed that the employer, for up to one year, will be responsible for payment of up to 50 percent of the employee’s wage during the period of sickness.

The Civita report also proposes lowering the so-called income ceiling at several public performances. Today, revenues over six times the ‘basic amount’ (G) are not counted. Civita suggests lowering this to five times G.

This will make a saving of 7.5 billion.

Cutting primary school by one year will save 4 billion. Civita believes that one year of earlier schooling has had little effect.

Governing parties won’t go into the individual proposals from Civita, but agree that one must sieve through critical government expenditure.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today