1.3 million euros – that was the account balance of the city on January 1st, which treasurer René Wolter named on Wednesday evening at the Jüterbog city council in the huge room of the Wiesenhalle. In addition, there are around 500,000 euros in investment grants, so that around 1.8 million euros are available for construction work this year.
From this, the own contribution must be financed by funded measures that are already running, such as the renovation of the monastery museum in Kloster Zinna – own contribution: 360,000 euros. “We cannot get out of this matter,” said Wolter, and neither from the further renovation of the meadow school. In this 9.2 million project, the city’s share will be 1.6 million in 2021. “With these two projects alone we are already in the red,” said the treasurer. But the ancillary systems for the B 102 through-town on Schlossstrasse also have to be co-financed by the city, which means that the deficit grows to almost three quarters of a million.
Unimagined dimensions
From now on, all other measures are no longer possible that have been undertaken and that have been waiting for a long time to be done. And it is getting worse and worse: “We have now reached dimensions that we could not have guessed before,” said Mayor Arne Raue (WsJ). He named the linden school with up to 800,000 euros, the mold infestation in Rathaus II on Mönchenstrasse with 400,000 euros, the deficiencies in the alternative quarters on the Karnip, in the fire department depot and now also the massive damage to the east gable of the town hall.
But that’s not all. The administrative budget shows a deficit of 3.6 million at the current planning stage. “We will very likely come to a minus of five million,” said Kämmerer Wolter. The resulting problem: “We can no longer take out loans if we can no longer prove that repayment is secured.”
Now it’s time to start voluntary spending
The mayors and treasurers are responsible for this misery not only on the district levy, but on the entire municipal financing system. There is a large gap between the constitutional claim that the municipalities are financially equipped to perform their duties and constitutional reality. So it is of no use, said Raue, to launch one funding program after the next, but only with a ten percent share, which the city simply no longer has.
The city council seemed to understand that now it’s really about the voluntary spending. A special meeting will give intensive advice on which should be deleted.
By Hartmut F. Reck
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