The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

State government wants to lift budget freeze

2023-05-24T09:30:07.168Z

Highlights: Schleswig-Holstein's state government has imposed a budget freeze due to falling tax revenues. Finance Minister Monika Heinold (Greens) had announced a temporary budget freeze last week. By Friday noon (12:00 noon), ministries and the State Chancellery are to make savings proposals. The ministries are to submit proposals for savings of 10, 15 and 20 percent of the expected shortfall in three variants. The country's first budget freeze since 2009 has been in effect since May 16.



Karin Prien (CDU, l), Minister of Education of Schleswig-Holstein, and Monika Heinold (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein. © Christoph Soeder/dpa

Due to collapsing tax revenues, the state government has imposed a budget freeze. For this, there was criticism from the opposition and associations. Now Finance Minister Monika Heinold (Greens) is putting on the brakes.

Kiel - One week after the controversial budget freeze, the black-green state government in Schleswig-Holstein has backtracked. By Friday noon (12:00 noon), ministries and the State Chancellery are to make savings proposals to compensate for falling tax revenues, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance available to the German Press Agency. The ministries are to submit proposals for savings of 10, 15 and 20 percent of the expected shortfall in three variants.

On Tuesday, the cabinet again dealt with the financial situation and passed a corresponding decision. Exactly one week earlier, Finance Minister Monika Heinold (Greens) had announced a temporary budget freeze after a cabinet meeting due to a slump in tax revenues. With a 16-billion-euro budget, around 900 million were affected by the lock, Heinold explained. The figures have convinced everyone that there is a need for action.

The President of the State Court of Auditors, Gaby Schäfer, had criticized the budget freeze as disproportionate. The government has until December to save the missing 120 million euros in the state budget due to the tax estimate, Schäfer told dpa on Wednesday. "It's about a problem that is smaller than one percent of the budget. The ministries can achieve this in the shortest possible time through savings." A budget freeze is usually only the means of choice in the event of a particularly blatant disproportion between income and expenditure on a permanent basis.

In principle, a budget freeze may not be used to incur expenditure or make commitments for which there is no legal or contractual obligation. In principle, personnel expenses and investments, such as construction projects, are excluded. This would affect, among other things, voluntary donations and grants to institutions, associations and clubs.

In addition to the opposition, an alliance of trade unions, social associations and other organizations had criticized the government's actions and called on the black-green coalition not to cut funds in the social sector in view of the budget freeze. In their view, there should be no savings in child and youth welfare, migration and integration projects, support for voluntary work and social housing.

The country's first budget freeze since 2009 has been in effect since last week. Heinold had reported on May 16 that revenue expectations for the period 2023 to 2027 were falling by a total of 2.8 billion euros compared to the October tax estimate. According to the current status, there is a gap of 2024 million euros for 450. After that, the need for action will increase even further. Dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-05-24

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-16T10:25:46.381Z

Trends 24h

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.