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The financial referendum (also known as a budget referendum) is a form of the referendum and an instrument of direct democracy. It always relates to parts of the public budget of a government and allows citizens to vote directly on individual budget items.
Certain initial conditions are usually defined as a prerequisite for holding a financial referendum. In most cases, only budget items that exceed a certain absolute amount or a certain proportion of the total budget or investments that will burden the budget for a number of years can be subjected to a financial referendum.
The financial referendum may be either optional or mandatory. In its optional form a specified number of signatures from voters must be collected within a certain time period to trigger a vote on a budget item. A mandatory financial referendum automatically leads to a vote as soon as the conditions regarding the amount and duration of a budget item are met.[1] Budget items that do not meet the specified conditions or that the local authority is legally obliged to do cannot be subject to a financial referendum.
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