Corona not yet noticeable financially: Rotenburg district is in good shape – Wümme Zeitung: Current news

In the Rotenburger Kreishaus, the finance department has now presented the draft budget for 2021. (Johannes Heeg)

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Rotenburg district. As far as the financial impact of the corona pandemic is concerned, the Rotenburg district has come off very well so far. While tax revenues are falling at the federal and state levels, the Rotenburg district is in a splendid position, as can be seen from the figures that Sven Höhl, the head of the finance department, presented to the finance committee on Wednesday. The surplus of 775,000 euros, which he had expected a year ago for the end of 2020, will be turned into an increase of almost 17 million euros, thanks in part to strong tax revenues. The consequences: The district is so liquid that it can completely do without planned loans for its investments of 9.3 million euros and is also investing 3.7 million euros in the repayment of its old debts, which is at a historic low of just under 26 million euros will fall.

Contributing to the good annual result will also be an increase of 3.3 million euros from the federal government in the costs of housing Hartz IV recipients, a special distribution from the energy supplier EWE (1.1 million euros) and additional income from the building permit fees for wind farms (900 000 euros). If the district hadn’t had to spend one million euros on protective clothing, staff and childcare due to the corona, the result would have been even better.

Tax power in Tarmstedt decreased

The district is using around half of the surplus, eight million euros, for a relief package that the cities and municipalities should benefit from this year. Five million euros will be distributed among them, which will be missing from their income tax portion due to the corona. In addition, the district is providing three million euros for investments in kindergartens. In addition, there is another two million euros relief package for 2021: On the one hand, the district wants to increase its daycare operating cost subsidies to 12.2 million euros, on the other hand, the administration has proposed reducing the district levy by half a point to 46 percent, which is the Municipalities also brings a total of one million euros.

The fact that the financial situation of the district is currently still quite comfortable is due to the overall increase in tax revenues of the municipalities. In the Zeven municipality alone, they more than doubled from 30.5 to 64.6 million euros between October 2019 and September 2020. All municipalities in the district together have increased their tax revenues by more than 39 million to 193 million euros. Only the Tarmstedt (minus 353,000 euros) and Selsingen (minus 147,000 euros) communes cut off the trend. Because the tax force is the basis for the district levy, the district expects its most important source of income to bring in almost 13 million euros more than this year in 2021, although the tax rate is to be reduced: The finance department is forecasting an increase of 86.7 99.5 million euros.

The largest expenditure item in the current administrative business of the coming year will again be the personnel: 58.7 million euros, which corresponds to an increase of twelve positions compared to the previous year (or 2.2 percent) and a share of the budget of 18.3 percent. The costs for youth welfare are also steadily increasing, for which the need for subsidies will rise by 153 percent since 2011 to an estimated 38.7 million euros in 2021. The expenditures for child day care rose by as much as 290 percent: from 3.7 million euros in 2011 to 15.1 million euros in the coming year.

Investments are expected to reach a record value of 61 million euros in 2021, with the lion’s share of 11.2 million euros each going to the new construction of the grammar school and the BBS in Bremervörde. Five million euros are to go into the fiber optic expansion, 3.3 million euros to the Rotenburg high school and a good half a million euros in the renovation of swimming pools.

Only 16.2 million euros are to be financed through new loans. The district takes a further 20 million euros from its liquidity reserve, 9.4 million euros come from grants and 19.7 million euros from surpluses of the district.

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