A popular television format of the 1980s looked at the question of what everyday products cost. If the candidates got the correct price or got close enough, they could win attractive prizes – and the audience at the TV devices always gave eager advice. It’s been a while since the 80s, just like the joy of price quotes – at least that’s what the District Office seems to have. Therefore, the authority is now officially distributing price tags – for applications from members of the district council. Which in turn is not particularly popular with everyone.
For example with Albert Hingerl, SPD parliamentary group leader and member of the district and strategy committee. There was recently an application from the Social Democrats on the agenda, it was about the question of whether the district should issue bonds, the proceeds of which can then be used to finance investments in education or climate protection, for example. The administration should check whether and under what conditions these municipal bonds are possible.
The administration’s response at the most recent meeting was relatively clear: under no conditions. According to district treasurer Brigitte Keller, the administration “neither has the staff nor the know-how” to act as an issuer of municipal securities. It is true that both can be obtained – that is, the appropriate specialists can be employed – which is much more expensive and laborious than simply taking out loans from a bank, as was previously the case.
Speaking of expensive: Together with the assessment of the sense and nonsense of the municipal bonds, the administration also immediately wrote down what this test cost approximately: A total of ten working hours were spent on processing – to prove the diligence of the submission, a total of 84 pages were attached attached to various statements – which, based on “average labor costs”, triggered a financial expense of around 500 euros.
The opinion of the administration now caused a certain displeasure in the applicant. Not so much because of the administration’s assessment that the district should better not issue its own bonds, he accepts them, says Hingerl. “What I find strange, however, is to write down what the test cost. I find that disrespectful.” The SPD parliamentary group leader even suspected that the fence post-reinforced hint could be behind it, “that we should let the applications remain in the future”.
District Administrator Robert Niedergesäß (CSU) did not want to confirm that directly, but that one was pursuing a certain educational purpose: In the current election period, the number of applications had risen sharply. This creates “a lot of effort, the burden on the administration has increased enormously”. That is why in future it will be documented with every application how much additional effort – and also costs – it has caused. Incidentally, regardless of the person or faction, the SPD application just happened to be the first to receive a price tag.
“That’s unbelievable,” said the applicant indignantly, the administration apparently wanted to dictate to the district councils how they should do their work, said Hingerl. “I don’t know if I still want to continue here.” Support came from the Greens, district councilor Reinhard Oellerer quoted from the Bavarian district regulation, according to which the district council has the task of controlling the administration – and not the other way around. “If you count the applications for us, you’re a little out of balance,” he said to the district administrator.
At least the price tag has no concrete consequences for the applicant. Hingerl’s offer to dispute the 500 euros for processing the application from the SPD parliamentary group fund received no response from the administration.