Record-breaking

State of Salzburg continues to build up debt in the billions

Marlene Svazek, Wilfried Haslauer and Stefan Schnöll are taking on a lot of debt with the new state budget(Bild: Tröster Andreas)

The budget deficit will rise to a record-breaking 1.82 billion euros by 2028. The state government is not shocked by this. "We can manage," emphasizes deputy state speaker Marlene Svazek (FPÖ). 

At the budget presentation this week, Marlene Svazek emphasized: "We can manage." The blue state deputy governor did so for good reason, as one could doubt this when looking at the bare figures. According to the current budget path, the black-blue coalition wants to incur a whopping 1.82 billion euros in new debt in the five years from 2024 to 2028 until the next election.

Svazek justifies the deep red figures with the difficult overall economic situation. Austria is in the longest recession since the Second World War. "Under different conditions, we could come close to a balanced budget," she says.

However, this is currently not possible. For 2024 alone, 595 million euros in new debt is planned. Governor Wilfried Haslauer (ÖVP) announces in his function as finance officer: "We will not exhaust that. It will be less."

475 million euros in debt is planned for the 2025 budget. In 2026, it should be 350 million euros, 250 million the following year and then 150 million euros in 2028, the regular election year. At the end of 2023, Salzburg's debt level was 1.3 billion euros, so at the end of this year it will be 1.8 to 1.9 billion euros. "The goal is for the debt level not to exceed 3 billion euros in 2029, which should be enough," explains Haslauer.

Nevertheless, the provincial government will also manage without additional levies in the coming year, announced the governor. "The surcharge on the broadcasting levy will not come," he says. Since 2024, the state has waived the state levy for the ORF contribution, and this is to be maintained.