As of: February 12, 2024, 8:52 a.m
By: Petra Straub
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Schools and town hall in Weilheim need to be renovated.
For this, the municipality needs more income.
This year they will be generated by tax increases and higher child care costs.
© Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
Parents have to pay more for the care of their children so that the city of Weilheim can fulfill its mandatory tasks.
Business owners and dog owners are also being hit harder this year than before (we reported).
The volume of the put together budget package has grown by 80 percent to almost 77 million euros in ten years.
New debts are to be incurred next year.
The city council now decided to finance upcoming investments with a large withdrawal from reserves.
Weilheim – “There is less of the income left over every year,” explained treasurer Christoph Scharf.
“Huge changes” have occurred compared to the previous year.
For the five largest revenue items in the administrative budget alone - taxes, childcare and other fees, rents and concessions/interest - revenue would probably only increase by 10.4 percent compared to 2023, but expenditure would increase by 26 percent in the comparable period.
The district levy has the greatest impact on the additional costs, but also childcare, personnel and building costs as well as payments to the municipal utilities, for example for the local bus.
Due to rising costs, there is no money for important measures.
The renovation of the city museum will have to wait.
Only the planning for this is taken into account in the current budget.
5.3 million euros for the renovation of the Hardtschule
Planned building construction measures consume the lion's share of the asset budget at 10.8 million euros and a share of 58.8 percent.
The first priority is the expansion of the Hardtschule, which is expected to cost 5.3 million euros this year, the renovation of the town hall with 2.5 million euros (plus 260,000 euros for a replacement power system) and the expansion of the Ammerschule with 2, 3 million euros.
The renovation planning of the city museum (455,000 euros) should also be continued and the roof renovation of the Nepomuk daycare center (280,000 euros) should be tackled.
Renovation measures at the Pfiffikus children's home are included at 260,000 euros.
An investment volume of 3.2 million euros is planned for civil engineering: construction work on Bahnhofsgasse, Adlhochstrasse, the Waldorfschule stop and the bus station on the station forecourt (800,000 euros) is planned, as well as the planning of the Urberlweg (875,000 euros).
Street drainage is expected to cost 230,000 euros, measures on the fire department's inner courtyard and parking garage will cost 370,000 euros and the renovation of former household waste dumps will cost 310,000 euros.
Flood protection is expected to cost 420,000 euros
Flood protection measures on Angerbach and Waitzackerbach are estimated at 420,000 euros.
The expansion of cycle paths on Fischergasse, Johann-Baur-Straße and Achalaich should also be pushed forward.
The plan is to acquire street land for Adlhochstrasse, Bahnhofsgasse and Am Betberg (271,000 euros) and to acquire assets, for example through purchases for the fire department (360,000 euros) and daycare equipment in the facility on Kanalstrasse (325,000 euros).
Loans amounting to over one million euros are to be repaid this year.
12.8 million euro withdrawal from reserves planned
18.4 million is the volume of the asset budget from which investments are made.
According to the decision, 12.8 million of the amount will be counter-financed through a withdrawal from reserves, so that this will probably be reduced to 3.9 million.
Only 5.6 million euros come from our own income (property sales 2.8 million euros, allocations from the state 1.5 million euros, loan for debt restructuring 720,000 euros).
In the current year and partly also in 2025, the reserves are sufficient to cover deficits; next year, according to treasurer Christoph Scharf, they will have to be offset with additional borrowing of an estimated 6.4 million euros.
45.4 million in tax revenue and 18.6 million in district levy
The municipality is expected to record the highest income in its administrative budget this year with taxes amounting to 45.4 million euros.
On the expenditure side, the powerful district levy is in first place with a planned 18.6 million euros.
This year it will increase by over 850,000 euros, spending on childcare will increase by 1.1 million euros and personnel costs (excluding childcare) will increase by over one million euros due to the collective agreement in the public sector.
The council voted 24-4 for the budget presented.
The ÖDP had the requirement to examine alternative flood protection measures through humus construction included in the minutes.
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Debts increase in the following years
In the coming years, further investments will be made in major urban projects such as flood protection and school expansions.
The city is in the red.
With debt repayments of around one million a year, the debt level is expected to be 13.6 million euros this year, then even 19 million euros in 2025, before falling again slightly in the following years.
The committee approved the financial planning until 2027 with a vote of 22:6.
Compared to other district cities of its size, at the end of 2023, Weilheim's debt per resident was 637 euros, one euro above the state average for 2022, according to the city.
The average in planning region 17 (Oberland) is 746 euros per inhabitant, higher than in Weilheim
Voices from the city council
In his budget speech, Mayor Markus Loth (BfW) complained about the tasks imposed by the state.
Combined with the legal right to lunchtime care from 2026, for example, there is only funding for construction costs, but implementation is an “enormous challenge” for municipalities in terms of construction technology, organization and finances.
Given the limited opportunities to generate income, Loth describes the current budget with higher trade and dog taxes as “solidarity financing from the people of Weilheim for the people of Weilheim”.
When it comes to trade tax, the municipality is using the greatest possible leverage by increasing the assessment rate from 380 to 400 percentage points.
Romana Asam (FW) expressed criticism of the deficit electric city bus concept, but she defended the tax and fee increases included in the budget.
Manuel Neuer (Greens) regrets that due to a lack of funds, it is not possible to work so intensively on cycle paths, climate, culture and construction projects.
However, he praises the investments in child care and schools included in the budget.
Marion Lunz-Schmieder (CSU), from whose parliamentary group two representatives voted against the budget, confirmed that the city wanted to do justice to the legal right to lunchtime care and called on the municipality to structurally improve the income side and reduce expenses, for example through a " more attractive economic policy” and through a new city bus concept.
The essential voluntary tasks are still included in the budget, said Bernhard Kerscher (SPD), who mentioned funds for theaters, VHS, asylum meeting points and museum planning.
Gerd Ratter (ÖDP) called for the planned flood protection project to be put to the test and implemented “with nature and not purely technically”.
It blocks other projects such as improving the quality of life in the city center.
Rüdiger Imgart (AfD), who rejected the budget because of the tax increases, believes that Weilheim is facing “lean years”.
Ullrich Klinkicht (WM Miteinander) also voted against it.
He cited the high expenses for the city bus and the “Angerbach monster project” as reasons.