Due to increased costs and a much higher effort, Bavarian cities want to concentrate on essential tasks in the future. The municipalities could no longer easily meet increasing standards and new tasks, said the chairman of the Bavarian Association of Cities, Straubing’s Mayor Markus Pannermayr, on Wednesday in Erlangen.
In the future, cities will therefore have to ask themselves what they can leave out. With a view to the state elections in autumn, the municipal association appealed to state politicians to reduce bureaucracy and at the same time to ensure solid financing of the cities in the Free State. The municipalities are also demanding more support for the implementation of climate protection measures. For example, as the landowner, the Free State should primarily make properties available for the generation of renewable energies to the municipalities.
The municipal association also sees a need to catch up when it comes to childcare. The Free State must put its own house in order and create more all-day school offers on its own responsibility in the school system, said Weilheim Mayor Markus Loth, deputy chairman of the association. This is the only way the legal entitlement for elementary school children can be implemented.
According to the information provided by the municipal association, there is a risk that populist parties will gain momentum if municipalities make promises that they cannot keep or can only keep after many years. The cities are therefore dependent on state politics for solid financing and less complex bureaucracy, it said. The Bavarian Association of Cities is meeting this Wednesday and Thursday in Erlangen for a general assembly.