Newspapers on Tuesday read about the 7.7 billion euro allocated in the 2008 budget for improving educational standards. In the same register, some professors have won a 40% salary boost in case - setting a dangerous precedent. Elsewhere in the news, Romanians living in the south of the country escape the first car tax by registering their cars in Bulgaria.

Adevarul reads that the new 2008 budget allocates about 7.7 billion euro, amounting to 6% of the entire Romanian GDP to improving the education system.

The paper notes that schools will soon turn into construction sites because the money is meant in improving educational conditions.

In rural areas, more than 3000 schools are expected to be renovated, while many others are supposed be built.

However, professors will not receive an increase in salaries. Union representatives say that they requested a while ago to see the proposed salary schemes for the upcoming year, but they got no official response from the resort Ministry.

Cotidianul argues that teachers might get the salary increase they ask for as union representatives in Dolj recently won an increase of their salary in court.

The paper reads that the increase they got reached the sum of 9 billion euro, a real bomb for the 2008 budget.

A Finance Ministry spokesperson says that the budget cannot sustain an increase for all the professors.

Moreover, the paper quotes attorney at law Magda Volonciu in saying that the process won in Dolj cannot be legally considered a precedent due to the tradition and practice of the Romanian legal system.

More in the news today, Romanians living in the South found a solution to avoid paying the first car tax by registering their cars in Bulgaria, Evenimentul Zilei reads.

The newspaper explains that buying a second car from Germany and registering in Bulgaria is cheaper than paying 1000 euro in taxes in Romania.

However, the solution presents its own risks: in order to register the car in Bulgaria, Romanians appeal to their Bulgarian friends to buy it for them.

Thus, the rightful owner of the car is the Bulgarian citizens who, a friend or not, one day can decide to get the car.

Local authorities argue that Bulgarians do not have the first car tax because Bulgarian authorities do not need to protect their own car industry, since they haven’t one.