As of: February 20, 2024, 4:47 p.m
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Heike Taubert (SPD), Finance Minister of Thuringia, sits in the plenary hall during a state parliament meeting.
© Bodo Schackow/dpa/archive image
Thuringia used less money in 2023 than expected.
There is more left in the country's savings stockpile.
The Free State will probably not have to take on any new debt next year either.
Erfurt - Thuringia has come through the economically difficult year 2023 better than expected, according to Finance Minister Heike Taubert (SPD).
The bottom line is that the Free State spent 323 million euros less than planned.
The state's financial reserves could thus be preserved, as Taubert said on Tuesday after the cabinet meeting in Erfurt.
Instead of the planned 752 million euros, only 429 million euros were taken from the state's financial reserves.
According to her, Thuringia currently has around 1.3 billion euros on hand.
However, around 780 million euros of this are firmly planned to finance this year's budget.
It doesn't work without a financial cushion
The problem is that Thuringia is currently unable to set up budgets without dipping into reserves.
“In order to remain able to act and remain well-positioned in the future, the Free State must examine expenditure for necessity and set priorities.”
According to Taubert, the red-red-green minority government wants to draw up a draft budget for 2025 before the state elections in September, but it will only be revised by the new government and introduced into the state parliament.
According to their forecast, Thuringia will go into the coming year with a reserve of around 750 million euros - including the then dissolved Corona aid fund.
The opposition CDU parliamentary group had insisted on this - only with this promise did they allow the 2024 budget to pass in the state parliament.
The governing coalition does not have its own majority.
The Free State will also manage without new debts in 2025 - despite stagnation in revenue, said the minister.
Two billion euros invested
According to the budget statement for 2023 presented by Taubert, Thuringia received 118 million euros more in taxes and federal money last year than initially planned.
There was, among other things, lower expenditure on personnel - also because positions in the state service are not filled.
Expenditure on refugees was higher than expected.
The country has invested almost two billion euros in investments.
According to Taubert, state debts amounting to 75.9 million euros were paid off last year - only half as much as in 2022. At the end of December, Thuringia was sitting on a mountain of debt of more than 15.7 billion euros.
dpa