The Chamber of Deputies approved the bill that would mandate an expenditure on municipalities equal to 7% of the annual national budget. The bill modifies the existing law, dating from 1997, which assigns 4% to municipalities. The new bill provides that no municipality would receive less than DR$400,000 per month. It also provides that no less than 35% of the allocation must be spent on organizational and infrastructure needs. The Deputies also approved their own operating budget for the coming year, which would amount to DR$572.4 million. The measure, which received unanimous approval of the Deputies present, increases the expenditures of the lower house from the current DR$461.4 million, representing a 24.04% increase.
