Municipalities generate surpluses: Another dispute

Created: 01/13/2023, 2:50 p.m

Euro banknotes lie on a table.

© Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/Illustration

The financing of the municipalities in Thuringia repeatedly causes heated arguments between the coalition and the opposition.

Numbers now show that money is not that tight - but the arguments continue.

Erfurt - Thuringia's municipalities have regularly generated a surplus in recent years and invested a lot of money in investments.

This emerges from a response from the Ministry of the Interior to a state parliament request from the left, which local politician Sascha Bilay presented on Friday in Erfurt.

According to this, the annual surplus of the municipalities in the period since 2014 - the year the government of Red-Red-Green began - has amounted to an average of 230 million euros.

"Even the corona pandemic could not stop the rising trend." In 2021, the surplus of the municipalities was even 363 million euros - in that year there was special help from the federal and state governments because of the pandemic.

The 230 million euros is an average value that fluctuates greatly every year, and the situation of cities, municipalities and districts is very different, according to Bilay.

"In the debate about the financing of the municipalities, I plead for more objectivity and transparency." He is not concerned with the municipalities getting less money.

The local politician of the Greens, Madeleine Henfling, made a similar statement.

"I very much hope that the extensive data now available will lead to an objectification of the debate." The municipal level is now doing very well - municipalities with deficits are no longer a problem across the board in Thuringia.

Criticism came from the opposition CDU parliamentary group.

Mainly at the instigation of the left, the red-red-green state government "let the Thuringian municipalities starve for years," explained their parliamentary group leader Mario Voigt.

In the budget negotiations over the past three years, the CDU parliamentary group has ensured that the funds for the municipalities are increased by a total of half a billion euros.

Overall, the figures show that the accusation that the state would bleed the Thuringian municipalities dry financially is not correct, said Bilay.

Investments by cities, municipalities and districts increased from 537 million euros in 2015 to 924 million euros in 2021.

Bilay admitted that citizens often do not understand exactly what is being done with the money.

More transparency would be appropriate.

This year alone, the state budget will provide an additional 155 million euros for the municipalities.

“The country is not cutting.

Municipalities have never had as much money as they do now.”

According to the data, smaller municipalities in particular have surpluses.

The larger cities, which have infrastructure and many offers for their surrounding area, often have a harder time.

According to the left-wing politician, municipal financial equalization, the structure of which has been the subject of debate in Thuringia for years, should be more focused on key areas and actually create a balance and reduce free-rider effects from flourishing municipalities.

The money should be used more accurately in some areas and help the municipalities that have problems more.

The domestic politician of the CDU parliamentary group, Raymond Walk, took the view that many municipalities were "threatened with massive financial difficulties" due to the rapid increase in energy and construction costs.

Many municipalities and cities are faced with budgetary security.

In many places there is no longer any scope for investment.

More help from the country is needed.

dpa