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Rhine-Ruhr. The action alliance “For the dignity of our cities” met representatives of the federal government and the Bundestag in Berlin. It received important promises – and yet had to remind people how urgent the problems in the cities and districts were. Essen’s city treasurer Gerhard Grabenkamp was part of the delegation in Berlin.
The head of the Federal Chancellery and the State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance have important messages for 8.5 million people in Germany. “You’re running into very open doors with us,” said Wolfgang Schmidt, head of the Chancellery, with a view to a debt solution for financially weak municipalities. Carsten Schneider, Minister of State in the Chancellor’s office, explained that the aim was to “permanently strengthen the local authorities’ own financial strength”. Werner Gatzer, State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, assured the affected cities and districts that a federal debt solution was a top priority in the Ministry of Finance and that the federal government was ready to make its contribution: “You have us on your side.”
That’s what the three top representatives of the Federal Government said this week in Berlin during a visit to the nationwide action alliance “For the Dignity of Our Cities”, in which numerous cities and districts on the Rhine and Ruhr (Please see the list at the end of the text) is a member. Schmidt and Gatzer thus increased the pressure on countries where there is still no old debt solution. The Saarland, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Brandenburg have solved part of the old debt problem in their municipalities. Rhineland-Palatinate has announced such a step, in North Rhine-Westphalia there is no solution so far. In this context, Wolfgang Schmidt made it clear that the federal government’s old debt solution must be limited to the federal states in which the affected municipalities are located. This assumes that all federal states act in solidarity.
40 representatives of “For the dignity of our cities” were guests in the Federal Chancellery, the Ministry of Finance and the Bundestag. In all the talks, they made it clear how urgently the unfair distribution of finances needs to be remedied and that, despite the current crises, this cannot wait. The municipalities are the enablers in the state. The special challenges of the past few years – taking in refugees from Ukraine and 2015/16, dealing with the corona pandemic – were all solved at the municipal level. The cities and counties always paid in advance, even though they suffer greatly from the consequences of unfair financial distribution.
The economic turmoil as a result of the Ukraine war will also have a significant impact on municipal budgets, for example through tax shortfalls. Inflation and cost increases, especially for investments, are exacerbated by the aftermath of the war and put an even greater burden on local authorities.
These acute dangers are all the more regrettable as the financially weak municipalities were on the right track. They had made considerable savings efforts and thereby reduced debt. Since the peak in liquidity credits in 2015 (50.4 billion euros), their level has fallen by more than 15 billion euros as of December 31, 2020. That is why those affected in Berlin now formulated a clear demand: “In the question of old debts, we need the federal government as a partner who not only signals its willingness, but also approaches the states with an offer. That means we now need a plan on how to solve the old debts in this legislative period.”
“For the Dignity of Our Cities” presented the representatives of the Federal Government and the Bundestag with a position paper with three core demands:
- Reduction of old debts from liquidity loans and old housing construction debts of East German municipalities
2. Fair compensation of the costs that arise at the municipal level because the federal and state governments oblige the cities and districts to carry out numerous tasks
3. New funding policy for municipal investments, which means that not only wealthy municipalities take advantage of funding, but that financially weak municipalities in particular make progress – for example in the future topics of climate protection, digitization and education
Further information
The cities and districts 66 municipalities from eight federal states have come together in the action alliance “For the dignity of our cities”. More than 8.5 million people live in the cities and districts – and thus more than ten percent of all Germans. The municipalities were particularly affected by the structural change, which is why they have low tax revenues and high expenditures, especially in the social sector. As a result, the municipalities are particularly disadvantaged by the financial distribution described and were particularly forced to incur debt in order to be able to fulfill the tasks assigned to them.
Alliance members are: The Lord Mayors, Mayors, District Administrators and Treasurers Bochum, BottropBrandenburg an der Havel, Cottbus, Cuxhaven, Dinslaken, Dorsten, Dortmund, Duisburg, Ennepe-Ruhr district, Essen, Frankenthal, Frankfurt an der Oder, Geestland, GelsenkirchenGera, Ginsheim-Gustavsburg, GladbeckHagen, Hamm, Hattingen, HerneKaiserslautern, Koblenz, KrefeldLahnstein, Vorpommern-Greifswald district, LeverkusenLöhne, Ludwigshafen, Lünen, Mainz, Mayen, Moers, MoenchengladbachMörfelden-Walldorf, Mülheim an der RuhrNeustadt an der Weinstrasse, Neuwied, OberhausenObertshausen, Offenbach, Pasewalk, Pirmasens, Recklinghausen, district of RecklinghausenRemscheid, Saarbrücken, Salzgitter, Schwerin, Schwerte, Solingen, Strasburg, Trier, Unna district, fedeVölklingen, Waldbröl, Werne, Wesel, district of WeselWismar, Witten, Worms, Wuppertal and Zweibruecken. (cities and counties from the editorial department of LokalKlick)
