The mayor does not start his budget speech with numbers, but with war and love. “When the power of love triumphs over the love of power, the world will find peace,” said Jimi Hendrix. Because of Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine, this is currently a long way off, says Dieter Reiter (SPD). But Munich have shown great solidarity. And even if the effects of the war, the energy crisis and still the Corona crisis cost the city a lot of money, the budget is “healthy”. They plan to invest more than two billion euros in 2023, a “huge sum”. You can also do that because of the industrial policy, which ensures that companies in Munich can earn money. “As city councillors, we shouldn’t saw off the branch on which we are all sitting well,” warns Reiter.
And then he distributes a few swipes, in the direction of Berlin and in the direction of the State Chancellery. He would like to see more reliability from the federal and state governments, he says. That some would not “get tangled up in the complicated power structure of a three-party constellation” and that the others would not “be guided by a self-promoter who swings mini wind turbines and who changes his basic political directions every month”. And before the CSU can criticize the town hall coalition for the creation of cycle paths, Reiter wants to refute the criticism right away: A single-digit million amount will be spent on this in the coming years. If the city were to do without it, it would bring “nothing at all” economically.
In the end, the city council will approve the budget for 2023, with payments from ongoing administrative activities amounting to 8.3 billion euros and a surplus of 240 million euros. The opposition votes against the plan.
The strategic goal of achieving a surplus of 400 million will be missed in the budget, said treasurer Christoph Frey (SPD) – but there will still be a positive balance by 2026 “despite all the crises”. At the same time, he warned that without countermeasures, the city would run into a debt trap. He therefore proposes a “fitness program” for medium-term financial planning. Exercise number one: stabilize and expand the surplus in the current budget. Exercise number two: deposits up, expenses down. Exercise number three: scale back investments.
Personnel officer Andreas Mickisch (SPD) referred to the 2.3 billion euro personnel budget: “This shows impressively that the employees are our most important asset.” This year alone, the city council decided on more than 1,000 new jobs. The problem is now that you can hardly get them occupied. At the end of October there were 4,000 vacancies in the city, most of them in teaching and education. And over the next ten years, 7,500 employees would leave. Mickisch also brought good news with him: So far, 249 employees from the Contact Tracing Team (CTT), which was recently drastically reduced in terms of personnel, have been recruited for continued employment with the city.
The opposition had not yet gotten a chance when City Councilor Florian Roth (Greens) anticipated their possible criticism. In the case of the “Peanuts”, which the cycle paths mean in view of the other investments, to speak of unilateral action is “ridiculous, dear CSU. Your record has a big scratch, put a new one on”. Sometimes, however, his courage dwindles, says Roth, when he compares the challenges facing the city with the requirements set by the state and federal government. “New record!” It sounded on the spot from the CSU benches. Roth admitted that the coalition had room for improvement when it came to the “statement of mind”. Ultimately, however, there is “very great agreement” on the budget.
Christian Köning, financial policy spokesman for the SPD/Volt parliamentary group, described the uncertainty in large parts of society in view of the difficult economic situation: “Many people are faced with financial existential fears.” The budget also shows: “We do what is necessary so that nobody is left alone.” So you bring about as much money for affordable housing as never before.
CSU parliamentary group leader Manuel Pretzl countered that the coalition could put another billion euros into housing construction – if they don’t ensure that this also becomes more attractive for private companies again, it won’t do much. To then move on to the general attack and compare the green-red town hall coalition with a football club – the problem is not money, but a club management without a concept. The coalition governs “bypassing the people”, it is characterized by “disunity and personal animosity” and is more divided than any other coalition since the end of the Second World War. When the SPD and CSU still governed together, they “didn’t even argue behind closed doors like you do in public”. He would like Mayor Reiter to “beat the table more often”.
Sonja Haider (ÖDP) complained that climate and species protection, but also the mobility and energy transition were still not being tackled with the necessary verve: “Decisions are not enough, we also have to implement them efficiently.” Jörg Hoffmann (FDP) responded to the mayor’s request to make concrete savings proposals. In 2005, when the level of debt was last as high as it will be in the coming year, there were plans to secure the budget. Something like that is needed again, “we must not make ourselves comfortable”. In addition, the municipal utilities should sell their holdings in wind farms abroad and concentrate on their core tasks in the city. The coalition should say goodbye to insisting on the right of first refusal: “Tell your colleagues in Berlin to leave us alone.” Brigitte Wolf (left) criticized the further consolidation of the administrative budget. This is not necessary because the city’s tax revenues would in all probability reach a record high again.