Füssen - The city administration is currently working on a budget consolidation concept.
This should show how the city wants to get down from its mountain of debt.
While the city is still full of tourists and many people from Füssen are still on vacation, Mayor Maximilian Eichstetter (CSU) can hardly breathe easy at the moment. “In principle, I currently have a double function as mayor and treasurer,” he describes his day-to-day work. This currently mainly consists of viewing countless invoices and receipts as well as creating tables. Because by the end of the year, the administration has to present a budget consolidation program to the city council and show how the city wants to get back from its mountain of debt in order to remain able to act in the future.
Against the background of massively increasing debts - the mountain of debts in the core budget alone is expected to amount to almost 60 million euros at the end of the year with a planned net new debt of over 20 million euros - the city's district office has a strict austerity program for the approval of the made this year's budget (the district
messenger
reported several times). However, the program should not only satisfy the district administration in order to get its approval for the budget. Rather, it is intended to be the political guide for the years to come.
Since the city is currently de facto without a treasurer after the imminent departure of the previous head of the financial administration, Marcus Eckert, Eichstetter and main office manager Peter Hartl now have to work out the concept.
"I am currently doing the entire economic history," says Eichstetter, describing what he does.
But every single employee of the town hall is called upon to do their part, reports the mayor.
"Every employee has a deadline until the autumn holidays to make savings suggestions," he explains.
According to the motto “the squirrel eats with difficulty”, every household item, every office should be scoured for savings opportunities.
“It starts with small issues like the market,” he gives an example.
"It can't be that we pay 20,000 euros to have a market."
In general, it is primarily various contracts and loans, some of which were concluded in the 1990s and with terms that last for decades, that restrict the city's financial scope.
In addition, there are numerous resolutions from the last city council period, which alone will cost around 90 million euros.
Eichstetter cites the renovation of the elementary and middle school, the new construction of the day-care center in Weidach, the modernization of the Ziegelwies or the renovation of the “Eight Bliss” kindergarten as examples.
Everything on the test bench
The situation is made even more difficult by a backlog of renovations in the past. “Nothing has been invested for years. Now everything comes at once. ”Eichstetter refers to elementary and middle school. "If you had invested 300,000 euros here every year like in high school, we would not have to build for 50 million, but only for ten million," he calculates. He currently assumes that the administration will get so many contaminated sites under control from 2028 at the earliest, more likely 2030, and will have positioned itself in such a way that debt reduction can begin. He therefore asked the citizens to be patient so that not everything would change within four years. “It is now about setting the course for the future,” he emphasizes.
In view of the situation, institutions that are steeped in tradition and loved, such as "Haus Hopfensee" are suddenly being put to the test.
"The 'Haus Hopfensee' must be set up so economically and attractively that the city can afford it," explains the town hall chief.
He is thinking of additional tenants, an extension for the fire brigade, additional parking spaces or parking fees for the parking spaces belonging to the house.
A photovoltaic system on the roof of the house is also conceivable.
"If we want to afford the house, we have to think about how we can set it up so economically that we can afford it," emphasizes Eichstetter.
More funding for school renovation
With all bad news there are also bright spots. Among other things, it was possible to reschedule a loan of ten million euros cheaply. And with the loan in Swiss francs, the administration is currently making money thanks to negative interest rates. For the renovation of the elementary and middle school, it was also possible to get an additional five million euros in funding. The fact that work on this will start a year later is acceptable. "In the past, you never used funding, you always financed everything yourself," says Eichstetter. "It was quicker, but we'd rather take the detour via the government."
He can also report initial successes from the federal base.
Despite all prophecies of doom, it was possible this year to achieve a positive result for the first time in the past three summer months with the ice cream rental.
The reason for this is that numerous DEB teams and club teams used the Füssen summer ice for their training camp.
Despite the strict austerity course, Eichstetter wants to stick to essential goals.
So Füssen should remain a family-friendly city and a city of clubs, he affirmed.
Above all, he wants to stick to the playground concept.
This is to be financed through savings, he announced.
