No, you cannot leave the budget at hand like this. Because the situation is changing drastically because of the pandemic, which is picking up speed again, it is necessary to discuss again how much the 29 cities and municipalities can actually be financially burdened, so the demand of the SPD parliamentary group in the meeting of the district committee on Monday afternoon . “At some point the plug will be pulled, then the corona bill will come,” said its chairman Florian Schardt, referring, among other things, to the consequences of the bridging aid for the public coffers. “We know that we are alone against the committee. But we want to see if something can still be extracted.” To anticipate: The Social Democrats’ concerns went largely unheard, the request to reduce the district levy, i.e. the payments made by the municipalities to the district, from 48 percentage points to 45.5, was rejected by all the other members of the committee.
“Alone against the committee”: SPD parliamentary group leader Florian Schardt.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
Schardt and his party colleagues had given reasons why the district could be generous: On the one hand, the income was higher than ever – the district treasurer was left with 27.1 million euros in additional funds due to the expiring solidarity pact on business tax. In addition, the new annual budget is “traditionally” generous and there will be a surplus again, as is the case in the current budget year. This amounts to 20 million euros, which is why planning could be set ten million euros lower for 2022. If only because, due to the shortage of skilled workers, it is unlikely that the jobs shown in the position plan will be filled “approximately in the planned form”.
For a lower district levy, almost 14 million euros in additional loans would have to be taken out
The SPD district councils calculated that, because of the ongoing interest rate level, it would currently be a better strategy to take out further loans, for example to finance the new administration building in the Messestadt Riem. “Why should you pay dearly for a building today when you can get it cheaper tomorrow?” Asked the Social Democrats in their motivation for the application. The answer was given by District Administrator Christoph Göbel (CSU): “The sweet poison of low interest rates, I warn against indulging in it.” You have to support a constant district levy of 48 percentage points with loans of more than 127 million euros, said Göbel. According to district treasurer Markus Kasper, even 140.9 million in loans would be required to reduce the allocation to 45.5 percentage points. In addition, the planned expenditure would have to be corrected by 19.7 million euros.
The SPD’s demand was not an option for the other parliamentary groups either: “Of course, lowering the district levy would be attractive for the municipalities,” said CSU parliamentary group leader Stefan Schelle. But the mayor of Oberhaching also pointed out that it was “a sign of solidarity towards the district” not to make any changes. “That also offers more leeway for the next generations.” Greens spokesman Christoph Nadler expressed himself in a similar way, emphasizing that the municipalities are “not doing so badly”, as the SPD believes, which is already shown by the 15 percent increase in allocation power – a key figure for the district’s economic performance, which is still increasing . Free voters and the FDP also spoke out against the SPD proposal, so that an approval of the budget in its current version on December 13th by the district council in Ismaning should only be a matter of form.