In its session on November 17th, the Pirna City Council wants to set the financial course for the next two years. On the program is the resolution of the new double budget for 2021/22. With the financial paper, the city and the city council must once again master a balancing act between what Pirna and the councils want to afford in the future – and what they can afford.
The budget is balanced overall, but the financial situation is strained. For some time it has been apparent that the city can hardly or not at all generate the own funds required for investments – and consequently has to take out new loans.
There are also external factors that cannot be influenced, although no one yet knows how they will affect the financial position. For example, it is unclear how the consequences of the corona pandemic will affect, how the challenges of climate change are to be mastered, how the global economy is developing, how the federal emergency aid programs work and whether the municipal rescue package will be extended beyond 2020.
Nonetheless, Pirna wants to continue investing in order to initially fulfill the mandatory tasks, but also to maintain the voluntary services. A good eleven million euros are planned for investments in 2021 and just under 13 million euros for 2022. The major projects include the extension to the Schiller Gymnasium, the new construction of the sports hall on Einsteinstrasse, the renovation of the school building on Nicolaistrasse and the construction of a second daycare center at the riding arena.
Ingest more, spend less
In addition, the city council should also pass a resolution that should ensure that the city remains financially efficient in the long term.
Because it is not yet certain whether all income can be generated as planned and the amount of allocations and subsidies that will flow, the city has implemented a safeguard: First of all, 14 percent of all cash expenses will be frozen in order to balance the budget for 2021/22 even if there are fewer income to ensure.
In addition, the second resolution also contains some key points to generate additional income or to explore further savings potential. Possible approaches here could be to increase trade tax and parking fees, to exhaust the parental contributions for daycare centers to the maximum permitted or to reduce road construction projects if no funding is available.
The city only wants to use these and other means in extreme financial emergencies, and each individual step would then have to be supported by a separate resolution of the city council.
The special meeting of the city council will take place on November 17th from 6 p.m. in the Pirnaer Schiller-Gymnasium.
You can read more news from Pirna here.
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