There are additional costs for the Passion Play 2022. Almost two million euros. A topic that caused a stir in the local council.
Oberammergau - a loud bang, shortly afterwards another. As if it had been ordered! In the middle of the emotional debate about the staging budget for the Passion Play 2022 in the Oberammergau municipal council, a light bulb of a lighting fixture bursts on the ceiling in the hall of the Ammergau house, which then crashes loudly to the floor. Community councils and listeners flinch briefly. The councils of the parliamentary groups of the non-partisan voters (PWG) and BIO are less frightened than aggressive, and in the discussion on this point they particularly attack plant manager Walter Rutz.
He estimates the additional costs for staging the Passion in two years at 1.85 million euros. Representatives of the two lists criticize the site manager's meeting template as too vague and superficial. BIO front man Florian Schwarzfischer is really pulling on the leather: “I ask for exact accounting figures. Now we should vote again very quickly on high sums, according to the motto, bird, eat or die '. It would have required a clean calculation from the start. But you still get it from the full, especially in these difficult times. This procedure stinks to me enormously. ”There is support from colleague Kristina Rupprecht, Peter Held and above all Ludwig Utschneider (both PWG). Above all, he criticizes "that the current status of the Passion Budget 2020 has not yet been presented". So you would know what funds are still available from the actual budget. Utschneider: "The question of whether the reserve of 600,000 euros was needed and, if so, why is not answered."
Plant manager sees "many unknowns"
The director Christian Stückl replies the attacks: “We don't want to cheat anyone. Everyone knew that it would be something like 2010. “The director wishes“ a little bit more trust ”, because in the last passion you stayed one million euros below the budget.
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Plant manager Walter Rutz apologizes for not being able to provide any more precise figures: “It is a fact that the new budget can only be roughly planned because there are still a lot of unknowns. Today we simply don't know what exactly the new costs will be. ”Markus Köpf (CSU) wants to know from the plant manager why the town council has to decide on the 2022 budget and whether a notification template is not sufficient here. Rutz replies that he needs a decision from the local council to negotiate with the insurance company.
Budget goes through
In the further discussion Ludwig Utschneider accuses the plant manager that preliminary consultations usually take place with such sums; this was not done.
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Finally, the vote on this explosive topic: Against the votes of PWG and BIO (six), the majority of the 2022 budget will be decided with twelve votes in favor. Ludwig Utschneider justified the rejection in the aftermath: "We were not fundamentally opposed to an expansion of the staging budget, only it would have required more detailed advice in advance." The group leader also wants to clarify a point of contention from the meeting: Plant manager Rutz claimed here that he would have presented the current status of the passion budget in the Works Committee on May 27th. Utschneider said literally: "The next day in conversation with me, Walter Rutz admitted that he actually did not present the numbers in the committee and he also apologized to me for his testimony at the council meeting."