It is a record budget with which the city of Garching is planning in the current year 2022 and with which the new treasurer Monika Gschlößl is introducing herself: the city plans to spend and also take in more than 110 million euros. On the one hand, this is due to the good news that Garching can expect higher tax revenues, especially from trade tax (42 million euros); on the other hand, there are several major projects on the expenditure side, the realization of which has partly been postponed in previous years – above all the new communication zone between Garching city and the research campus of the Technical University of Munich.
In addition to ongoing expenses for personnel, administration and operating expenses, the city has a number of large construction projects on the list that will be booked as investments in 2022. The fire station in Garching is being rebuilt (moving in probably in 2024), the middle school and primary school west school complex is being expanded, a siren warning system with eight sirens is also being set up in the city area, and several streets, footpaths and cycle paths are due for renovation. Almost three million euros are due for the withdrawal of the neighboring municipality of Unterföhring from the school special purpose association for the Garching high school. The sports stadium at the lake and the Römerhof also need to be renovated. The biggest cost factor among the investments, however, is the purchase of land, including for the construction of the new Hochbrück elementary school, which the municipality wants to start planning in 2023.
In the communication zone, the work on houses and apartments, which should offer space for up to 3000 people, should finally progress. The city has estimated development costs for 2022, as well as costs for the planned subsidized housing. However, the mixed situation with a total of eight different landowners and investors does not seem to bring any luck to the large-scale project – the schedule is currently threatening to be further delayed. Hopefully not for too long, because according to the city’s plans, construction of the new elementary school North should start in 2023, for which a total of 60.7 million euros have been calculated.
The mayor is optimistic when it comes to new sources of income: Another “global company” wants to settle in Hochbrück
The city finances the expensive construction projects, including some compulsory municipal tasks, to a large extent from its reserves; more than eleven million euros are earmarked for withdrawal. In the next four years, according to current financial planning, the Garching cushion would melt from a good 49 million euros at the end of 2021 to just under 12 million euros in 2025. Mayor Dietmar Gruchmann (SPD) warned that the withdrawal from reserves should only be a “bridging measure”. The city must sell land in the communication zone by 2023 at the latest – by 2025, 53.8 million euros should come into the coffers. In the long term, chamberlain Gschlößl warned that Garching had to open up new sources of income. Gruchmann is in good spirits: Another “global company” is already planning a new sales center in Hochbrück, he indicated.
Incidentally, citizens will be able to follow Garching’s financial planning in detail in the future: Garching is a pilot municipality for new software that graphically processes household data. The result, the “visualized budget”, is to be made accessible online after a decision has been made – next Thursday the city council will debate the figures again.