Analysis: "Rich municipalities lose out when the equalization is redone"

Urbanization has been going on for a long time and few things indicate that it will be broken. In recent decades, the state presence has significantly decreased in many parts of the country. The Social Insurance Office has been closed down in many places. The Employment Office has closed. The post offices have disappeared, the banks have closed many of their local offices. Shops have struck again, as have gas stations.

At the same time, the metropolitan areas have grown strongly, not least Stockholm. In the big cities, new jobs have emerged at the same time as the mills around the country have lost jobs.

This is a development that naturally has political consequences. A sense of exclusion in depopulation districts creates dissatisfaction and influences political choices.

Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has long traveled around the country, often in sparsely populated areas, to show that he cares about these areas and these electoral groups.

The proposal to change an important part of the municipal tax equalization system must be seen in the light of this. The prime minister wants to show that he is not only talking about this, but that he is actually doing something.

Specifically, it is now about SEK 3 billion to be transferred further from rich municipalities to poor municipalities. Stockholm will be the big loser on this proposal and is estimated to lose SEK 1.5 billion.

Pori, a place hit hard by the declining population, was the plastic for the prime minister's summer numbers. Pjörneborg is located in Värmland, which according to the prime minister would receive SEK 250 million more if this proposal becomes a reality.

And it probably will. The budget negotiations with the Environment Party, the Center Party and the Liberals are not ready yet, but it is difficult to see that the Prime Minister would dare to publish his proposal if he had not first been approved by his partnering parties.

The stated goal is that the new system will take effect on 1 January 2020, ie in less than six months. It burns in the knots. A bill of the Council of Ministers must be presented shortly and then a bill before the Riksdag can make a decision.

The tax equalization system consists of several parts, all with the aim of equalizing the economic differences between different municipalities depending on, among other things, the population structure. One of these parts is the so-called cost equalization and that is what the government now wants to change.

A greater proportion of the money in this system will go to municipalities with a sparse population. More consideration should also be given to socio-economic factors.

The prime minister's hope is that the measures will help to stop the depopulation in the countryside by giving the municipalities more resources for public service.

The question, however, is how effective this proposal will be. Several efforts to curb rural depopulation have been implemented since the 1960s, but despite this, the relocation class has continued to move to the metropolitan areas.