In order to meet the spending cap of 17 million euros, the individual town hall offices have to make massive savings.
While the building and culture department can stick to the austerity package made by the finance department and city council, it has reached its limits in the social area.
Dachau
- The cultural office saves itself the carnival, the building office cuts in construction projects such as the town hall extension. The Office for Schools, Childcare, Youth, Social Affairs and Sport will also contribute to budget consolidation, as Lord Mayor Florian Hartmann made clear at the beginning of the most recent meeting of the Family and Social Committee. But in order to be able to adhere to the savings targets down to the last cent, “problematic restrictions” would have to be made. And Hartmann, with the approving nod of his head of department, Markus Haberl, made it clear that, in his opinion, these restrictions on compulsory tasks were “not feasible”. Otherwise the city would have "an even bigger problem" than its budget.
Example: As a result of the demolition of the old gym at the Dachau-Ost school location and the renovation and expansion of the Dachau-Ost primary school, the children have to be taken to other halls by bus during the construction phase; The city also has to rent containers to replace classrooms. The result: costs of 139,000 euros. If the city council does not want to pay these expenses, then, according to Haberl, "the specialist department recommends that the measures for the replacement of sports halls and the expansion of the primary school be stopped immediately."
Another example: In order to get the children through the flu and corona waves as safely as possible in winter, the committee decided a few weeks ago to buy mobile air purifiers for its daycare centers and primary schools. For the primary schools alone, there are 113 devices, which, according to information from other municipalities, have maintenance costs of 600 euros. The consequence: in addition to the procurement costs, there are a further 69,000 euros in follow-up costs.
Third example: swimming lessons. In order to achieve the specified savings target, the expenditure in this area should not exceed 22,600 euros. However, “swimming” in primary school is a “compulsory sporting field of activity”, as Haberl emphasized, and the teachers on site would already complain about “considerable deficits” in the children's swimming skills. You would need 29,500 euros. So whether the red pencil is right here?
The councilors in the committee - with the exception of AfD representative Markus Kellerer - agreed that the need to save in the social area is definitely reaching its limits.
Anke Drexler (SPD) also reminded that it's not just about the children: “It's also about keeping our staff through decent working conditions.” Her group is therefore clearly behind Haberl's budget - despite additional spending.
Elisabeth Zimmermann (CSU) also stated that school and childcare were one of the city's compulsory tasks and should therefore be “optimally managed”.
In these areas you can "not just cut down 20,000 euros and hope that it will somehow work".
It will "not be".