Falko is against free travel in Mykolaiv municipal buses: «When everything is free — it is not good»

Secretary of Mykolaiv City Council Dmytro Falko. Photo: NikVesti

The secretary of the Mykolaiv City Council, Dmytro Falko, does not support the idea of making public transport free of charge.

He expressed this opinion on the air of the TV channel «March».

« Personally, I think it is inappropriate. When everything is free — it is not good. The example of the city of Kharkiv was cited, but their budget is eight times larger than the budget of the city of Mykolaiv. And as for the development budget, it is several times higher. Actually, the budget is not rubber. If we have to spend money on something, we have to take it from somewhere,» explained Dmytro Falko.

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It should be added that the job of the Secretary of Mykolaiv City Council is not free either. In 2024, the Mykolaiv City Hall paid him almost 653 thousand hryvnias in salary, and he receives approximately 54 thousand hryvnias (about $1,300) per month, while the average salary in Mykolaiv, according to Work.ua, is 21 thousand hryvnias.

In total, in 2024, Dmytro Falko, the city council secretary, declared 1.3 million hryvnias in income, including 653 thousand hryvnias of salary in the executive committee, 720 thousand hryvnias of dividends from LLC «Nikmar».Also last year, Dmytro Falko sold his car Mitsubishi ASX 2015 for 130 thousand hryvnias.

The Falco family keeps 1 million 70 thousand hryvnias, 60 thousand dollars and 40 thousand euros in cash, and 500 thousand hryvnias in Ukrainian bank accounts.

The idea of free bus travel in Mykolaiv. What is known?

As a reminder, Tetiana Dombrovska, a member of the Mykolaiv City Council from the «Servant of the People» party, proposed to make public transport free for all city residents.

In response, the director of the municipal enterprise «Mykolaivpastrans» supported this idea, but only on condition that the company's expenses are fully and timely reimbursed from the city budget.

Subsequently, Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, discussed the possibility of making public transport in Mykolaiv free with the mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych. He cited the example of Kharkiv, where such transport is now free for residents.

In Mykolaiv, it was proposed to make public electric transport free back in 2021. At the time, the head of the city council's budget committee, Fedir Panchenko, said that the city already allocates funds from the budget every year for the municipal enterprise «Mykolaivelektrotrans», and the company earns only about 10% of the need from ticket sales.

In 2018, Mykolaiv politician Oleksandr Sadykov, who was a member of the executive committee at the time, also proposed to abolish fares for public transport in the city.