CSU puts pressure on: Proposals for solid finances are needed

Created: 01/22/2022, 08:04

By: Kathrin Böhmer

Euro banknotes lie on a table.

© Sample photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/Illustration

Treasurer Robert Schuhbauer actually had good news: The budget for 2022 is balanced, but no loan is needed.

Olching – This is thanks to an unexpected windfall through the allocation of keys.

Instead of around 4.3 million euros, 5.8 million euros flow into the till.

The contribution to the district is also lower than expected (17.3 million euros)

This means that the city can meet its financial obligations (administrative budget with a record volume of over 60 million euros) and even has something left over.

Around 3.2 million euros can be booked in the asset budget (investments).

Since the legally prescribed minimum contribution is around 1.8 million euros, according to the treasurer, a free financial margin of around 1.4 million euros is generated.

Mayor Andreas Magg (SPD) said that the changes were fundamentally positive.

However, you still have to deal with the topic of special reserves for the apartments.

These were intended as a kind of internal loan in the preliminary consultations.

How this will continue is to be clarified at a special meeting in March.

That's not enough for some in the main committee.

The CSU (largest faction) refused to recommend the draft to the city council, which is supposed to approve it in the coming week.

Group leader Tomas Bauer addressed “an urgent appeal to consolidate” the budget to the Treasury.

It was now 2022 and we now had to deal with how the city's finances could be solidly positioned in the future.

"I warn against relying on things that you have no influence on." He called for concrete proposals from the administration in the coming days to eliminate the structural deficit.

Raising daycare fees is one possibility.

The only question then is: "Who are the bad guys?"

Mayor Magg didn't want to leave it that way.

Olching's financial situation had been stable for years.

"Corona unexpectedly knocked us out of the curve." There are certainly approaches to saving.

Funds (around 11.5 million euros) are also said to come from property sales (Schwaigfeld and Heckenstraße), which the Greens in turn see critically and brought into play hereditary lease in order not to drive the price spiral any further.

The head of the town hall was also surprised that the CSU was dissatisfied with the budget now that it is in better shape than it was during the preliminary consultations in December.

Delivering a reasonable concept quickly will be difficult, according to Magg.

Andreas Teichmann (FDP) also voted against the recommendation of the budget draft to the city council.

He wanted information on how exactly the critical handling of municipal expenditure should look like.

And he also needed more time to work through the 500-page financial work, which was only received an hour before the meeting.