Horror household in Nuremberg: Chamberlain puts red pen on – 500 jobs are to be deleted

Created: 03/10/2022 05:01

By: Nikolas Pelke

Because Nuremberg is in danger of collapsing like a poor donkey under the heavy burden of the oppressive budget, the outgoing Treasurer Harald Riedel (SPD) wants to prescribe a financial drastic cure for the cash-strapped municipality.

Nuremberg – With a remarkable appearance, the outgoing financial officer Harald Riedel (SPD) prepared Nuremberg for drastic savings.

The seriousness of the situation was recently demonstrated to the council members with bitter pictures by the long-time companion of ex-Mayor Ulrich Maly (also SPD).

Riedel even commissioned a caricature from what is probably the most famous caricaturist in the Franconian metropolis in order to be able to give the councilors a clean slate.

Gymmick's drawing, which was recently awarded the German Caricature Prize, shows a rickety donkey with the apt name "City Budget", which is in danger of collapsing under the heavy burden of personnel costs, social spending, debt and the like.

Nuremberg's coffers are clammy.

Chamberlain Harald Riedel has made cuts.

© Daniel Karmann/dpa/Christine Dierenbach/City of Nuremberg

So that the donkey doesn't kneel and the city of Nuremberg doesn't go bankrupt, Riedel has served up a drastic savings plan to the councillors.

First, the town hall itself should tighten its belt and be put on a diet as soon as possible.

Budget 2023: 500 full-time jobs are to be cut in the city of Nuremberg

From next year, vacancies will simply not be filled, and 500 full-time positions will be lost as a result.

With the help of this "zero diet" the workforce is to be thinner and the administration leaner.

And it gets even worse: In the years 2024 and 2025, no new jobs are to be created at all.

Second, Riedel wants to prescribe a reduction in spending for the city as a savings recipe.

Particularly expensive major events could fall victim to the cutbacks.

There are heaps of prank candidates in Nuremberg, from the Bardentreffen to the Blaue Nacht.

Thirdly, Nuremberg should spend less generously when building new schools.

With this savings package, Riedel wants to successively relieve the poor donkey from the cartoon by 50 million euros per year until 2026.

The road to budgetary discipline is likely to be rocky, of course.

Harald Riedel shaped the Nuremberg household over the last 15 years as chamberlain.

As a farewell, Riedel decreed a bitter austerity plan for his hometown.

© Christine Dierenbach

Nuremberg's billion-euro budget is burdened by high social spending and hefty personnel costs

The next budget for 2023 alone has a volume of almost 2.3 billion euros.

The biggest block remains the social spending in the amount of over 800 million euros.

With more than 750 million euros, personnel and pension expenses are very close behind in second place.

On top of that, the biggest cost driver is slumbering in the personnel budget due to increased salaries for civil servants and employee tariffs.

The growing personnel costs alone are responsible for half of the cost increases in the next budget of almost 100 million euros.

Rising energy prices make things even more difficult.

The city budget as a rickety donkey: For the presentation of the desolate budget situation, Riedel commissioned "Gymmick", the new winner of the German Caricature Prize from Nuremberg, with a drastic drawing of the desolate financial situation.

© Cartoon Gymmick

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Nuremberg threatens to run out of cash money

The bottom line is that Nuremberg is clearly threatening to run out of the necessary money, which is still left in the cash register after deducting payments for loan repayments and payments for investment costs.

As a result, the difference between this shortfall between cash flow and repayments is growing continuously from 35 million euros in 2023 to over 85 million euros in 2026.

According to Riedel, even with more optimistic planning, this would result in a difference of almost 225 million euros.

Local transport alone is already burdening the Nuremberg budget with a minus of 100 million euros a year, despite relatively high ticket prices.

The State Theater also devours more than 20 million euros a year for maintenance without the renovation of the opera house and the design of the interim building.

In addition, there are investments in companies such as Nürnberger Messe, which has particularly suffered from the corona pandemic.

Riedel believes that Nuremberg needs better financial resources from the federal and state governments in order to be able to continue to meet its obligations as a center in the Franconian north of the Free State.

Riedel has titled his financial diet plan "Balance between current crisis management and financial sustainability".

Red "Harry" decreed Nuremberg a bitter savings recipe to say goodbye

In it, Riedel self-critically noted that "in all the years of our good cooperation" it was never his goal to discipline the city council with "excessively restrictive budget planning".

In plain language, this probably means that the city has always expected income to be nice and expenses have always been small.

And therefore obviously forgot to make provisions for bad times even in good years.

Shortly before retirement, the long-time companion of ex-Mayor Maly apparently finally wants to teach the cash-strapped city how to save.

The red "Harry" will be replaced next spring.

The successor should come from within the party ranks.

The SPD faction leader Thorsten Brehm is traded as a hot candidate, who clearly lost out in the election for the Maly successor against the incumbent town hall chief Markus König (CSU).

To top it all off, the expensive consequences of the energy crisis and the gloomy clouds of a severe recession are just around the corner just before the change at the top of the finance department.