What does the municipality do?
Skellefteå municipality deals with many things for the benefit of the people who live here. Among other things, the municipality is responsible for providing preschools, schools, social services and elderly care. Every municipality in Sweden has a legal duty to provide such services.
The municipality must ensure that people have access to childcare, preschool, compulsory education, upper-secondary education and special-needs education. It must also organise municipal adult education, Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) and social services. The municipality must provide care for the elderly and people with disabilities.
The municipality must plan land use and new buildings and ensure that there is adequate housing. It must ensure the protection of health and the environment, that the streets are clean and that residents can dispose of their household waste.
The municipality is responsible for the rescue services and for ensuring that all homes have running water and wastewater. Finally, the municipality must have libraries where citizens can borrow things like books, magazines and newspapers free of charge.
Everything else the municipality does is voluntary. For example, the municipality helps by providing sports grounds, public baths, cultural schools, museums and much else besides. All so that we who live in the municipality can enjoy a happy and healthy life.
Everyone who lives here must be permitted to participate in and decide on matters concerning their home municipality. The municipality is therefore governed by politicians directly elected by residents.
In Sweden, national, regional and local elections are held every four years. The Swedish people then choose which political parties will represent them in the Riksdag, county councils and municipal assemblies.
To vote in municipal elections, you must be 18 years of age or over and registered as a resident of the municipality. Foreign nationals must also have been registered in the Swedish Population Register for at least three years.
The municipality is governed by the municipal assembly. It is the members and alternate members of this assembly that we elect in municipal elections. Political appointments are made to the municipal executive committee and various committees.
In Skellefteå, the Social Democrat Party and Left Party currently have a majority in the municipal assembly.
Everyone who lives in the municipality and has a job pays a percentage of their wage or salary to the municipality: this is called municipal income tax. The municipality uses this money to arrange all of the services that the people of Skellefteå Municipality need. (You can learn more about which services the municipality provides at the top of this page.)
The municipality also receives money from central government. This money is called government grants. The amount of money Skellefteå Municipality receives depends on the population of the municipality.