The Corona crisis is not affecting Bad Tölz as hard financially as feared. Although the income is falling significantly, the city manages to raise around 12.7 million euros for investments this year. This is almost 3.9 million more than was foreseen in the budget for 2021. “We now have good years behind us, we have significant reserves and a low level of debt,” said city treasurer Hermann Forster on Tuesday evening in the city council’s main and finance committee. This opens up the necessary scope for the projects that have already been put on the track. The budget situation is likely to deteriorate significantly in 2022. Then you will have “four million euros in unmet need,” Forster announced. And only two million more for investments.
In the meantime, however, it doesn’t look cloudy. “It is important to me to complete as many projects as possible before we tackle new ones,” emphasized Mayor Ingo Mehner (CSU). The city has more of these than seldom before: the renovation of the Jahnschule, the new construction of the four-group kindergarten on Jahnstrasse, the renovation of the southern school, the redesign of the old town district of Gries, the new multi-family house for financially weak families on Königsdorfer Strasse, the triple gymnasium, the Development of the Zwickerwiese construction area, the redesigned Taubenloch and Bürgergarten parks. All of this requires “an above-average investment volume,” said Forster. The city thus behaves in an anti-cyclical manner in an economic crisis and is “exemplary in this respect”.
In Tölz, too, the income for the municipality is shrinking. In the administrative budget, the treasurer expects a minus of around 725,000 euros. The share of income tax alone will shrink by 700,000 euros. In addition, there are 100,000 euros less parking fees, maybe 300,000 euros less profit transfer by the municipal utilities. The expenditures for personnel costs, building maintenance, planning services, the new homepage of the city or the trade tax apportionment amount to 25.66 million euros. That is roughly the amount that was priced into the budget. The bottom line is that the investment rate drops by 1.3 to just three million euros.
However, the city has made provisions in recent years – through a restrictive budget policy, as Forster noted. He can take almost three million euros from his reserves, i.e. his savings, the proceeds from the sale of real estate will increase by 344,000 euros to 2.6 million euros, and borrowing increased by 900,000 to 1.7 million euros. In addition, there is a million from a special reserve for the construction of the apartment building on Königsdorfer Straße.
At the same time, the treasurer presented the city councilors with a long list of measures from the property budget, which he labeled with an urgency note. In addition to the major projects, this includes 145,000 euros for the schools’ digital budget. As a result of Corona, interjected Mayor Mehner, “the need for action here has increased significantly”. A short debate arose around the question of whether the depot should get two new vehicles with a so-called Steiger and a telehandler. Total cost: 300,000 euros. “That seems very exaggerated to me,” said Anton Mayer (CSU). Building authority manager Christian Fürstberger justified the purchase of the Steigers with the old age of the previous vehicle, the telehandler was necessary for work in tall trees. So far, a two-man squad can only work in lower branches. “Otherwise we have to buy additional work,” he said. Mayor Mehner took up Mayer’s suggestion to rent a loader for a year and then discuss it again.
However, some projects are to be dropped from the 2021 financial plan. These include, for example, the new lighting in the central car park, the roundabout on Sachsenkamer Straße / Bahnhofstraße, the new railway bridge on Gaißacher Straße, the planned hall for street garbage in Farchet. Also for the furnishing and the lighting concept in the old town no money is supposed to flow this year. Peter von der Wippel (FWG) disliked this. 45,000 euros for the furniture are manageable, he said. “We live from the attractiveness of the city.” Mayer replied that household scraps were available “with which we can still fulfill some wishes”. For Karsten Bauer (CSU), the city is now “sending the right message” with additional investments of 3.9 million euros.
After the key data has been presented, the 2021 budget is to be adopted by the end of March. Chamberlain Forster announced this. In addition, the city council should still go into retreat in the first half of the year. “We’re getting into the exciting situation that we have to shape things more strongly,” said Christof Botzenhart (CSU).
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