The new district administrator Thomas Balcerowski agrees the Harzers on a tough austerity course. According to the CDU politician, nothing should be taboo.
Halberstadt l The finances of the Harz district are not doing well. Twelve million euros are missing in the circular bag in 2020 alone. In order to close the gap between expenditure and income, one can fall back on reserves this year. But then the savings sock is empty. Double-digit deficits are also expected for the coming years. In order to be able to compensate for this, one has to start saving. “In the end, the citizens will feel that too, there is nothing to gloss over,” said District Administrator Thomas Balcerowksi (CDU) during a press conference.
For Balcerowski there is only one way out of the dilemma: All voluntary, but also mandatory tasks would have to be checked. This also includes taking a critical look at the organizational structures, projects and staff numbers in the district administration. The administration’s staffing plan shows around 1,000 full-time positions; this must also be applied to, for example, subsidies for museums, music schools, local public transport, theaters and orchestras, announced the head of administration.
He wants to get this off the ground together with the Harz district council, and a consolidation concept must be drawn up in parallel to the budget for 2021. This will not be the case for the current year, even if there are already painful cuts. Because the district will invest significantly less than planned. The reason for this is that the state has only approved the Harzkreis household subject to conditions. The loan of 16.4 million euros planned for 2020 was denied. The state administration office only allows loans of 1.2 million euros and a further 3.3 million euros for irrefutable projects, explained CFO Heike Schäffer.
Loans for schools in Halberstadt?
One condition is also linked to the borrowing of five million euros, which is necessary for the acquisition of the land and buildings of some secondary schools in the Halberstadt area. Here the district is supposed to present a profitability calculation. “This is a rejection through the back door. How do you want to refinance a loan with a school so that it pays off for us, i.e. is economical? On a pro forma basis, the state administration office is following a request from the state audit office, but this credit is actually forbidden. “It is just too cowardly to formulate that clearly, according to District Administrator Balcerowski.
His criticism of the state of Saxony-Anhalt goes even further. Since you are not allowed to accept Kerdite, planned renovations and modernizations at schools could not take place. The high school Am Thie Blankenburg, the Woltersdorff-Gymnasium Ballenstedt, the Pestalozzi-Schule Wienrode, the August-Bebel-Schule Blankenburg, the Hauptmann-Gymnasium Wernigerode and the secondary school in Ermsleben are affected. The Land Administration Office does not consider these investments to be mandatory. However, the country had announced that it wanted to make more investments in the educational landscape. “Announcements of state politics are torpedoed by the decisions of the state administration.”
For him it is also incomprehensible that special burdens on the Harz district are being ignored by the state. The district has to spend 1.9 million euros annually on the central contact point for asylum seekers, for whom there is no compensation from the state.
Balcerowski wants to save on culture
The state also refused to participate more financially in the operation of the Lyonel Feininger gallery and the State Music Academy of Michaelstein Monastery. How the results of the negotiations on theater financing will turn out in 2022 remains to be seen. Balcerowski, according to his own statement, is critical of the “double structures”, meaning that the theater orchestra and the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra should be under one administration. Balcerowski expressly emphasized that he did not want to give up venues. In terms of the structure of the cultural landscape, however, one basically has to ask what is useful to the guest.
The district administrator announced that he would seek talks with the mayors over the next few weeks in order to find solutions. In view of the empty city and community coffers, an increase in the district levy is not a helpful option to improve the district’s finances.
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