As of: February 12, 2024, 9:00 a.m
By: Magnus Reitinger
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The city of Weilheim is planning to spend 9.1 million euros on the renovation of the town hall and the two elementary schools in 2024 alone.
© Ralf Ruder (archive)
The city of Weilheim can only finance the rising costs and the construction projects that are already underway with increases in taxes and fees - and by digging deep into its reserves.
New loans will soon be necessary.
Weilheim – A good 76.6 million euros: This number leaves some city council members in Weilheim speechless.
It is the volume of the city's budget for 2024. And that is much higher than ever before.
Compared to the previous year, the total expenditure increased by almost 8.9 million euros - an increase of 13 percent.
Compared to 2014, it increased by almost 80 percent, treasurer Christoph Scharf calculated in the most recent budget meeting.
“We are in the first third of major investments in childcare and are still at the beginning of the cost-intensive flood protection measures,” explained Mayor Markus Loth (BfW).
At the same time, the city is “accompanying the construction sites of the town hall and bus station, which we hope to be able to complete soon”.
But it wasn't just these "enormous investments" - shown in the 18.4 million euro asset budget - that presented the city with challenges, according to the town hall boss.
High district levy and child care costs burden the administrative budget
The development of the administrative budget, which is growing to over 58.2 million euros this year, is causing “great concern”.
According to Loth, the once again higher district levy (18.6 million euros), increasing payments for child care (13.1 million euros, over one million more than in 2023) and the collective agreement in the public sector are particularly noticeable here.
Personnel costs – excluding daycare centers – rise by more than one million euros to almost 9.1 million euros.
Another major item is payments for services provided by municipal utilities (over 6.4 million euros).
Scharf emphasized that “what was justifiable was saved” in the draft budget.
And yet there initially remained “drastic underfunding”.
The necessary tasks can only be achieved by increasing the fees for daycare centers, the dog tax and the assessment rate for trade tax (we reported).
And with a strong grip on the reserves: the city has to withdraw over 12.7 million euros this year.
The city will probably have to take out loans of more than six million euros in 2025
If there are still 3.9 million left for next year, then, according to planning, the reserves will have been used up and the city will probably have to take out new loans amounting to over six million euros.
The city of Weilheim, with a per capita debt of 637 euros, is currently exactly in line with the national average for comparable cities, says Scharf.
Also read:
Business criticizes tax increases in Weilheim
Loth stated that “the gap between income and expenditure is becoming ever wider”.
In his opinion, Weilheim does not have a revenue problem: “For a district town with around 24,000 inhabitants, we have average tax revenue and a healthy company structure.” What is no longer suitable is “financing the tasks imposed by the state”, for example in childcare.
While in previous years the city's financial result was always better than planned thanks to higher tax revenues, this cannot be relied upon in 2024, according to the town hall boss: Because they have "already left a lot of room out in the draft" and the German economy is now “stumbling”.
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“No building ruins due to lack of financial resources”
Despite all the problems, the path shown with the 2024 budget and the financial planning until 2027 is “viable and feasible,” summarized city treasurer Scharf.
With this year's budget, the city council also decided to authorize commitments amounting to 8.54 million euros in anticipation of 2025. This will "ensure that measures are fully financed and that in the end there are no half-finished ruins due to a lack of financial resources".
Many council members said in their statements that the budget contained “unreasonable demands”.
Nevertheless, the vast majority agreed.
The 2024 budget was passed against the votes of Alexandra Bertl, Klaus Gast (both CSU), Rüdiger Imgart (AfD) and Ullrich Klinkicht (WM Miteinander).
In addition to these four city councilors, the two ÖDP representatives also voted against the financial plan presented until 2027 - because it includes millions in expenditure for the "technical" flood protection in Angerbach, to which alternatives should, according to them, be examined.