Phase 2: More funds or many cities face crisis - Appendino (7)

(ANSA) - Turin, May 25 - The government must earmark more funds for towns and cities or else many of the 'comuni' (municipalities) will go into financial crisis, Turin Mayor Chiara Appendino said Monday, saying that the three billion euros granted to councils by a recent decree were not enough.
    "It is clear that the three billion from the government to the comuni is not sufficient," she told Italian radio.
    "Unless the government intervenes by July 31 we will be one of the comuni that, like many others, will go into financial crisis".
    Appendino said Turin city council "is lacking over 230 million euros of its 1.3 billion budget".
    She said "we expect dialogue with the government to go ahead and that further resources are earmarked before July 31".