After the Wettinger residents’ council has just had an intensive meeting on the 2021 budget, the next one will follow this Thursday. This residents ‘council meeting also contains a lot of discussion material: after around three years of revision, the municipal council presents streamlined municipal regulations as well as modified business regulations for the residents’ council.
According to the new regulations, the mandatory referendum should only be applied to budgets with tax rate changes instead of being mandatory for all budgets, as was previously the case. In addition, those entitled to vote should no longer automatically have a say in loans that amount to more than four million francs or contain an annual amount of more than 400,000 francs. According to the local council, this strengthens the authority of the residents’ council. Should the people not approve of a decision, the optional referendum would still remain. «The residents’ council is democratically legitimized to decide instead of the voters. Their democratic rights will continue to exist in full, ”writes the council in the agenda report.
Heiner Studer, former member of the National Council (EPP) and former Vice-Minister Wettingens, sees it differently: “That is not the case. Rather, the rights of those entitled to vote are significantly restricted. ” Studer brings 40 years of experience from the local council, twelve years as local council and 28 years as local council. He doesn’t normally comment on local day-to-day politics: “But people’s rights are a fundamental question, and I want to and have to get in touch.” Especially if a statement does not correspond to the facts. “Only someone who has never had to collect around 1200 signatures for an optional referendum within 30 days can say that the rights will not be curtailed.” To have at least a tenth of all eligible voters sign a referendum form during this period is a huge effort.
“The claim in the agenda report that ten percent of the electorate is a relatively low referendum hurdle is completely wrong,” affirmed Studer. In his opinion, an optional referendum against a loan application only makes sense if the number of signatures would be reduced very significantly, as in the canton – in Aargau it is 3000 for the entire canton. “The municipal law, however, provides this ten percent as a minimum and the municipality unfortunately has no competence to reduce this.” For Studer, the abolition of the mandatory referendum is therefore a decisive dismantling of popular rights. So far, serious business dealings have mostly been supported by the voters. He firmly expects that the residents’ council will approve this point of the monitoring commission. This would like the mandatory referendum for loans over four million francs to continue to be recorded in the municipal code. But Studer thinks the proposal to only allow those eligible to vote on budgets with tax rate changes is a good one.
The political groups are critical of the proposals
In its first proposal, however, the executive wanted the people to no longer be able to vote on budgets at all. But the non-partisan support commission cushioned that. Your recommendation to let the people at least have a say in tax rate changes, took over the local council.
The parties tend to be critical. In its parliamentary group report, the CVP writes that it has a high regard for the right of the population to have a say and does not want to restrict it: “The annual municipal budget and a possible tax rate adjustment should still be able to be decided in a referendum.” The FDP also wants the people to be able to vote on any budget and continue to vote on loans: “These votes have an important control function and it would be difficult to justify abolishing them, especially in the current tense financial situation.” This is how the GLP sees it: “As the highest body, this has little say and especially in times when a certain distrust of politics is noticeable, it is not the right way to regain trust.” The SVP finds clear words: “A blatant form of democracy dismantling.”
In the case of EPP / Forum 5430, it sounds more positive: “In the case of critical business transactions, referendums to authorities must be called more often so that the population can continue to have a say.” The majority of the group is ready to take on this responsibility.
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