The Vienna accounts for the previous year provide for new debt of 1.28 billion euros. This is 600 million euros less than budgeted, as Finance City Councilor Peter Hanke (SPÖ) explained in a press conference on Monday.
The deficit for 2021 was lower, among other things, because internal savings could be achieved, he explained. The volume of the accounts is 16.2 billion euros. It will be decided by the municipal council at the end of June. “Vienna’s financial situation is defying the crisis,” asserted the department head. He referred to calculations according to which Vienna was responsible for 25 percent of Austria’s economic output. Investments and city assets increased in the previous year – to 2.4 and 32.2 billion euros respectively. The reserves were also increased to 2.1 billion euros.
However, the level of debt has also increased. It now totals 9 billion euros. If you look at the debt per capita, Vienna is in the middle of the federal states, assured Hanke. In any case, through savings in all departments, it was possible to reduce the budgeted deficit – estimated at 1.9 billion euros.
The lion’s share of expenditure was in the areas of health, social affairs and education. These funds make up around half of Vienna’s total budget. Once again, most of the revenue comes from federal revenue shares. Own taxes and fees account for 11.1 and 3.2 percent of income respectively.
Discussions on fee increases
Fees, such as those for parking, water or waste, are adjusted in Vienna by means of the Valorisation Act. Increases are made dependent on how high the consumer price index has recently risen. In any case, the high rate of inflation would probably result in price increases at the next review in the summer.
According to Hanke, he will – probably in August – discuss with Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) whether to actually increase. The city government can also suspend the law. The opposition has repeatedly called for this.
Opposition criticizes
This is also not very happy with the figures presented on Monday. The ÖVP saw the city as far away from a “consolidation course”. Club chairman Markus Wölbitsch and finance spokesman Manfred Juraczka pointed out via the broadcast that 3 billion euros in debt from the outsourced areas had not yet been included. The zero deficit, on the other hand, will be postponed to the “Never Little Day”.
The Greens warned that the looming interest rate hikes in particular posed a dangerous threat to Vienna’s stability – as debt had reached a record high of 9 billion euros. According to the Greens, spending on housing subsidies and culture has also been reduced. “In return, there was and is more money for road construction,” complained the budget spokesman for the Greens in Vienna, Martin Margulies, about the “wrong setting of priorities”.
For the FPÖ it is “no wonder” that the level of debt is increasing “immeasurably”. Because it is a fact that hundreds of millions of euros are spent on social assistance for people who do not have Austrian citizenship or even legal deportation orders, Vienna’s FPÖ boss Dominik Nepp was annoyed. A redistribution of funds is needed here so that fee reductions and support for the local population in the fight against inflation can be financed, he demanded.
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