Despite the budget crisis:

Life in the town hall is like a land of milk and honey

There are many extras at Klagenfurt City Hall. And it will stay that way.

(Bild: Uta Rojsek-Wiedergut)

The financial crisis in Klagenfurt is coming to a head and the town hall is currently not even able to draw up a budget for 2025. A twelfth regulation from January 1 is looming. However, life in the town hall continues to be like a land of milk and honey. Six million euros are spent annually on overtime alone.

Klagenfurt must prepare itself for a one-twelfth rule for the 2025 budget. This means that each department will have one twelfth of this year's budget at its disposal each month. This would also mean that all subsidies would be discontinued.

Major projects such as the indoor swimming pool and conference center are shaky, as finance officer Constance Mochar still comes up with a minus of 34 million euros after all deductions.

No savings are to be made in personnel, although there is a lot of potential there. 36 percent of the 380 million euro budget in Klagenfurt is spent on personnel, in Villach it is only 27 percent. If the provincial capital were to follow Villach's path, around 11 million euros more would remain in the city's coffers each year. Other comparable cities such as Salzburg or Innsbruck have hundreds fewer employees than Klagenfurt, where 1,800 people work in the town hall. Nevertheless, the work there is excellent.

Six million euros are spent on overtime in Klagenfurt every year. No cost-cutting measures are planned. No manager in the private sector understands that.

Sick days are also at a record high at the town hall: in 2022, it was 23.2 days per employee. The Austrian average is only half of that. And here, too, nothing is likely to change in Klagenfurt any time soon.