Despite stagnating tax revenues and uncertain economic forecasts, Bavaria wants to anchor 6,000 new jobs in the new double budget for this year and next. 4,000 of these positions alone are earmarked for education, said Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) on Sunday before the start of the two-day budget meeting in Gmund am Tegernsee. “You can then clearly see that we are sending a clear signal for families, for schools, for education.” In total, this is “almost half of what” the CSU and Free Voters agreed in the coalition agreement for the next five years.
Furthermore, the budget should also take into account an increase in teachers’ pay and new staff for the police and judiciary, said Söder. The new budget plan should provide for further investments for universities as well as for the expansion of daycare centers, housing construction and public transport. “That’s a pretty good balance, I think.”
Söder emphasized that the state government wanted to once again present itself as a “counter-model to the traffic lights” in the federal government when drawing up its budget. “While there are endless arguments about how much debt is being incurred and savings are being made everywhere, we are sending the opposite signal.” Bavaria can invest without incurring new debt. The aim is rather to start repaying loans from the corona pandemic.
Nevertheless, there will be no waste, “we look after our money,” said Söder. “That means we turn every euro twice, where it is necessary, for example in education, we make significant gains there. And at the same time we also make sure that we can still keep an emergency fund. Reserves for difficult times.” The Free State is “of course already suffering greatly from the German conditions,” said Söder. In order to overcome the crisis, investments are therefore particularly important. In addition to lighthouse projects in Munich, Nuremberg and Augsburg, this also involves technology transfer to rural areas and for the benefit of medium-sized companies.
For the first time since the Corona crisis there will be a double household again
For the first time since the Corona crisis, the Bavarian cabinet wants to decide on a double budget. At their meeting, Söder’s ministers have to manage a difficult balancing act: on the one hand, stagnating tax revenues, exploding personnel costs and a sluggish economy require austerity that was not necessary in Bavaria in previous years. On the other hand, the CSU and Free Voters also want to use their budget to commit investments and thus demonstrate their own ability to act. The budget meeting is scheduled to end on Monday afternoon.