The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Debts don't rob him of his sleep: OB explains why Freising is well prepared despite millions of lousy people

2022-12-30T07:09:15.529Z


Debts don't rob him of his sleep: OB explains why Freising is well prepared despite millions of lousy people Created: 12/30/2022, 08:00 By: Manuel Eser "Because we are now investing so much in the infrastructure and bringing everything up to date, the city will not have a major renovation backlog in the decades to come": Mayor Tobias Eschenbacher explains why he is not worried about Freising. ©


Debts don't rob him of his sleep: OB explains why Freising is well prepared despite millions of lousy people

Created: 12/30/2022, 08:00

By: Manuel Eser

"Because we are now investing so much in the infrastructure and bringing everything up to date, the city will not have a major renovation backlog in the decades to come": Mayor Tobias Eschenbacher explains why he is not worried about Freising.

© Lehmann

The debt of the city of Freising could increase to 157 million euros in 2023.

In an interview, the mayor explains why this doesn't cause him any sleepless nights.

Freising

– Some city councilors reacted with great concern to the financially tense situation in the city of Freising in the budget meetings: the treasurer calculates with new debt of 60 million euros.

If loans of this amount were actually taken out, the mountain of debt would increase to around 160 million euros.

Mayor Tobias Eschenbacher explains to the FT where he sees the causes of the current problems, which austerity measures will be the focus in the future, and why he still has no sleepless nights.

The current financial situation in the city made the city council faction chairwoman of the Greens, Susanne Günther, resort to a drastic picture in her budget speech: From her point of view, the patient is in a coma.

Is Freising actually facing financial exitus, Lord Mayor?

In such a debate, of course, catchy formulations are sought.

But I don't think this specific picture is appropriate.

Why not?

If I look at the trade taxes from 2014 to 2019, the annual average is over 50 million euros.

Now we only have about half.

The Corona slump is very noticeable among trade tax payers.

But if the prospect is that the situation will stabilize again, then we certainly won't be stuck in this situation for long.

Nevertheless, we have to think about how we can consolidate to such an extent that the city will later have a cushion for future crises.

So you don't have sleepless nights in view of the mountain of debt?

No, because we have managed an incredible number of projects in the last ten years and have thereby increased the value of our fixed assets enormously.

I'm not only talking about the projects that can be written off over the years, such as the Westtangente or the schools, but also about the housing construction that generates income.

We have over 1,000 residential units in the city, and there's a huge fortune behind them.

And something else puts the current debt burden into perspective: because we are now investing so much in the infrastructure and bringing everything up to date, the city will not have a major renovation backlog in the decades to come.

I therefore assume that the reserves will grow again.

This means that the balance will also improve significantly again.

The financial tour de force will continue for a few more years.

Which projects are pending?

Flood protection remains a major issue, and of course the conversion of the city center will keep us busy for a few more years.

But the two main items on our agenda for the coming decade will be housing and schools.

also read

"Aren't you ashamed?": Youth welfare office reports against the mayor of Eching - SPD takes a stand

READ

Huge cloud of smoke over the brewery in Au - firefighters experience a surprise

READ

Stone throwers target Freising school

READ

It's over after two years: the lights go out in the Freising vaccination center at the end of the year

READ

"A matter of the heart": Nandlstädter distributes Christmas presents to truck drivers

READ

Fancy a voyage of discovery?

My space

The next major school project is underway: After the Steinpark schools have been put into operation, the primary school in Vötting is now being partly renovated and partly rebuilt.

© Lehmann

What exactly is happening in the schools?

Now that we have completed the construction of the Steinpark schools, we are currently working on the primary school in Vötting, which is being partly renovated and partly newly built.

Next up is the St. Korbinian elementary school, and a second elementary school will also be built in Lerchenfeld in the next few years.

You have already mentioned social housing.

Living space is desperately sought.

What will the city achieve here in the coming years?

We in the city council agree to expand the stock of apartments so that we can secure even more living space in the long term.

Our current problem is that many social housing units were built by private investors in the 1980s and 1990s and have been gradually falling out of social ties for years.

They are then available on the open market.

Incidentally, this social bond also ends in some urban apartments.

So we could also offer them on the open market and make significantly more profit.

But that's not our intention, that's not what we built the apartments for.

Affordable housing: 30 social housing units are being built on Angerstrasse.

© Lehmann

So shouldn't private investors be obliged to build social housing again in current projects?

We are already doing that.

For example, a cooperative was awarded the contract for the realization of the so-called city balcony in Stein-Park on the condition that part of the apartments be realized in a socially bound manner.

We also made it a condition to create at least 30 social housing units on Angerstrasse, which Bayernheim GmbH has now bought.

And in the future we will apply the Sobon model.

Sobon stands for social land use.

This means that if we draw up a development plan in the future, anyone who gets building land on a green field must build 30 percent socially bound housing.

For the first time, this model is being used in its entirety at Neustifter Feld.

And what is the future schedule for downtown redevelopment?

With the redesign of Obere Hauptstrasse, the most time-consuming and complicated phase of construction will be completed next spring.

At the same time, the renovation of the Untere Hauptstrasse to the Asam building will begin, which will be completed at the end of 2023.

In 2024 we will take a break because of the Corbinian anniversary.

It will then continue in 2025 - probably with a difficult topic: the construction of a rainwater retention basin under Marienplatz.

We'll have to wait and see how long it takes for that.

And this is followed by further redevelopment up to Amtsgerichtsgasse.

I estimate that in 2027 we will have completed the redesign of the main axis.

And then it's the turn of the side streets with new paving and barrier-free paths.

Once the major projects have been completed in the coming years, the wealth budget can recover.

However, the administrative budget already has deficits.

Can this structural problem of not generating enough income for day-to-day business be solved?

The question is: What does structural problem mean?

If the current deficit were to persist from year to year, that would be a structural deficit.

And it is no coincidence that the state office also requested the consolidation report from the city.

That's correct.

This report helped us identify cost centers where we could save money or increase income.

Cost centers were also identified that are still based on city council decisions for which you are not responsible at all, but have just been fixed in the budget.

We always have to ask ourselves: is this still necessary – or are we spending money on something that is no longer useful.

Basically, however, the report warns that the city of Freising should concentrate on its mandatory tasks and not spend too much money beyond that.

Ultimately, politicians have to look at everything and weigh up where savings should be made and where not.

But there are also voluntary measures that the city should probably not save on in a healthy way.

Right.

We support a wide range of institutions that are important for social life.

It also has to be said that we have everything that a municipality can afford.

How many cities are there that have a swimming pool, an ice rink, a library and a theater at the same time?

We are already at a very high level there.

What specific clues does the report provide?

It is relatively extensive and includes a wide variety of topics, which we will deal with individually in the respective committees.

It says things like: Look at your tax rates, can you increase them?

Take a look at your fee calculation for municipal facilities, can it be adjusted?

To be honest, we subsidize a great many areas in all facilities.

The expert opinion therefore presents many smaller adjustment screws, which together then result in a greater effect.

There are also individual items where a lot can be saved, but this could also have a negative effect.

One example is the granting of a large-scale allowance: The Freising allowance is a voluntary benefit to the workforce.

That costs us around half a million euros a year.

That's a lot of money.

But why is there this large-capacity allowance?

Clear case: Because the cost of living is high here.

So if we save here, we might suddenly find ourselves in an even worse situation as far as the skilled workers are concerned, because they'll probably go somewhere else.

You have to weigh up whether we are doing more harm than good by making savings.

But increasing income, such as taxes, is also problematic in bad times when everyone is already suffering from the negative economic situation.

Clear.

The fact that tax revenue has fallen so drastically means that large parts of the business are not doing particularly well.

A tax increase would punish the "last" who still generate taxes - and you get nothing from the others anyway.

And of course I can scare off companies with high taxes.

Due to the financially difficult situation, the city council has imposed a budget freeze: Only 80 percent of the budget may be accessed per item.

What does that mean specifically?

We have a total of over 1000 budget posts that are under lockdown, but not all of them can be banned from releasing funds.

When it comes to expenses that are contractually agreed or legally binding, we can't avoid letting this money flow.

But when it comes to investments that are not absolutely necessary, we will take them to the committee.

In my opinion, however, the budget freeze is not about cutting 20 percent everywhere per se, but about looking closely at each issue, and not just at the end of the budget debates, but throughout the year.

It's a kind of blocking notice.

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)

So it's not the case that individual areas always come to a standstill when the budget is exhausted?

No, but if you want to pay out a budget in full, whether it's a grant, an institution, or a building renovation, it has to go to committee.

Then it says: This or that is pending - should it be done or not?

What is the mayor looking forward to next year in Freising?

To the completion of the construction phase in the upper old town.

The opening of the Moosach has always been on my political agenda.

In this respect, the redevelopment of the city center is almost a political life's work for me.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-12-30

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z
News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.