Dresden. The negotiations dragged on and took place by video conference towards the end: Saxony’s state government presented its budget plans on Tuesday. The benchmarks envisage an annual volume of around 21 billion for 2021 and 2022, as Finance Minister Hartmut Vorjohann (CDU) said at the presentation. That is a little more than in the current budget. The growth is due, among other things, to federal funds for the lignite phase-out and the unbroken EU funding.
Like the Vice Prime Ministers Wolfram Günther (Greens) and Martin Dulig (SPD), Vorjohann referred to the difficulties caused by the corona pandemic. Saxony will comply with the debt brake, said the finance minister. In spring, the state parliament decided that up to six billion euros in loans could be taken out to deal with the crisis. Vorjohann put the current volume at around two billion euros. Saxony is not in debt to finance other projects. “That is important for the solidity,” emphasized the CDU minister.
According to his account, 2,000 jobs will be created in the next two years. A big single item is educators. 600 jobs are to be created. There should be almost 500 at universities. According to Vorjohann, these are those that have previously been financed by the federal government and are now borne by the state. If this is implemented, Saxony would have around 86,000 state employees without trainees and third-party funded employees.
“Big problems when the crisis is over”
Environment Minister Günther pointed out that the generation change in the administration must succeed. A number of posts with KW notes, which have so far been omitted at some point, have been converted into permanent ones. That affects more than 450 in the penal system. According to his account, the country can invest in research on the climate crisis and species extinction, for example. There should be money for the forest damaged by drought, storms and bark beetles. According to Vorjohann, several future funds have a volume of two billion euros.
The government also dared to look into the more distant future: “We will need great efforts to give the country new momentum,” said Minister of Economic Affairs Dulig. Vorjohann warned: “We will have our big problems when the crisis is over.”
The benchmarks are to be specified in more concrete terms in the coming weeks. The government plans to hand over the then complete draft budget for the next two years to the state parliament before the Christmas holidays. The decision is expected in the spring.
The announcements sparked a divided response in parliament. The Left sees the danger of “serious cuts” and reiterated its demand for a nationwide property tax for the super-rich. The AfD criticized an “inflation of the administration”. The SPD parliamentary group pointed out that no cuts in the social sector were planned. The FDP, which is not represented in the state parliament, sees the increase in jobs as a “heavy mortgage for the future”.
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