VNG chairman Jan van Zanen: cabinet ignores agreements on youth care

He is “stunned.” “Intrinsically unhappy.” Jan van Zanen, chairman of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) and mayor of The Hague now and then bangs his fist on a table in The Hague’s city hall to reinforce his words.

The new cabinet has barely started, the House of Representatives will debate the coalition agreement on Tuesday and Wednesday. But municipalities still have little confidence in the ‘warm words’ about cooperation between the national and local government.

There’s a reason. Mutual tensions, including about the arrival of asylum seekers centers and each other’s powers, are rising. The additional tasks that municipalities have been given in recent years led to squabbles about money: last year, for example, a ‘committee of wise men’ had to be brought in to resolve a conflict about youth care shortages. The outcome: the central government structurally paid the municipalities billions too little and must compensate for that.

“The agreements we have made about this,” says Van Zanen, “is now simply ignored by the new cabinet.”

Last week, the VNG, which represents all municipalities, called in an extra virtual meeting of members to determine a strategy for the coming period. Van Zanen: “We want to be treated as the autonomous co-governments that we are.”

What’s going wrong now?

“There is always tension. I don’t mind healthy tension. Personally I think they don’t feel it. We have the people at the counter. We come to people’s homes. We are in the institutions. We cycle through problem areas. They only see the large amounts, the size of the budgets.”

By ‘she’ he means the cabinet, but also the House of Representatives.

“The paradox is that we are the first government. In behaviour, in the tasks we have, in the relationship with the citizen. In all disasters, all crises, there is a municipality in the door. But the Empire behaves, let me say it kindly, as if we were a glorified executive office.”

Youth care is an example of the disturbed relationships. Municipalities have been responsible for this since 2015, they wanted to do that themselves. But because the central government cut budgets and the demand for youth care increased at the same time, many municipalities found themselves in financial difficulties. Van Zanen also sees that extra money alone is not the solution, youth care must be better and cheaper in the long run: “We are not without fail or failures.”

Also read: ‘Billions extra needed for youth care’

Municipalities, he says, view the new term as an opportunity to get things right “once and for all.” Also financially. But in the meantime, the cabinet will cut half a billion extra on youth care from 2025. According to the VNG, this disregards the judgment of the ‘committee of wise men’. “Unbecoming”, says Van Zanen. The municipalities therefore unanimously decided last week to end cooperation on the reform of youth care. They only want to participate again when the austerity plan is shelved.

Calling in an arbitration committee was the ultimate remedy. That didn’t help. What can the municipalities still do?

“I’m not going to make it worse now by making threats. We will first talk to the cabinet. They should just roll back the 500 million. They won’t need it tomorrow, it’s all going to happen in a few years. If we soon discover that we can save more money, as the government claims, we will do that.”

Meanwhile, plans for better youth care are on hold.

“That’s exactly where we’re stuck. We have a duty of care. That’s a good thing, it’s about children. As a municipality, you cannot say: the money will run out after 1 July, so now the children will have to wait.”

So what can municipalities do?

“Yes, what can we do? We can no longer collect taxes, we have to hand in budgets. So we are cutting back on public services – often for people who are already vulnerable. Closing the library, not maintaining the parks for a while, closing the swimming pools a little earlier.”

Also read: The money from the municipalities is running out, and everyone will notice that

On average, 70 percent of municipal income comes from the government, deposited in the so-called Municipal Fund, and also from local taxes and, among other things, the rental of municipal buildings.

The coalition agreement also contains other items in which municipalities are disadvantaged according to the VNG. Van Zanen makes a grab when he points to the billions of injections into a housing and public housing fund. “One point six billion is taken from the Municipal Fund for this. Yes, I’m sorry. This is based on the premise that municipalities do not need that money. We also need to invest in housing.”

The money is returned in tranches if municipalities offer the same amount in return and if they spend it according to central government rules. Conditions are therefore attached to it, as a result of which the policy freedom of municipalities is lost, says the VNG. “That money is ours. If you need money, don’t come and get it from us. We have to do things about that.”

Another irritation from Van Zanen: clues. These were in the news at the end of last year when State Secretary Ankie Broekers-Knol of Asylum Affairs tried to force municipalities into asylum reception with an ‘instruction’, two weeks ago it turned out that there was no legal basis for this. The coalition agreement states that the central government reserves the right to be able to issue instructions in all kinds of areas. “Without any consultation. We have a statute for how we treat each other as governments. As a co-government, we also do our best in a crisis situation. This country is not that big, we all know each other, we can just discuss it.”

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A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 17, 2022

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