Dispute in the town hall

City of Oberwart wrestles over budget for 2025

The town of Oberwart is struggling with falling revenue shares, rising personnel costs and extremely high social expenditure. Preparing the budget will be an enormous challenge

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/Tatjana Balzer - stock.adobe.com)

The budget is currently the big topic of contention in the town hall. SPÖ calls on Mayor Rosner to present a plan for the future

Oberwart is growing and so are the challenges facing the town's politicians. The town is currently struggling with a hole of 1.4 million euros when drawing up the budget for 2025. Too little revenue is being offset by too many new projects. If Mayor Georg Rosner (ÖVP) has his way, they don't want to burden the citizens even more financially for a second year in a row. In the previous year alone, fees in the district suburb were increased by an average of 30 percent. The head of the town is currently also struggling with his political allies in the local council to consolidate the budget and to bring about a passable budget. This requires an alliance in Oberwart due to the tied vote between the SPÖ and ÖVP.

Plan for the future demanded
If the SPÖ has its way, the budget proposal will only be approved if the head of the town presents a plan for the future. Rosner has already let the October 31 deadline set by the SPÖ pass and a new deadline of November 19 has been agreed. "A zero-eight-fifteen set of figures with the lid on and closed is clearly not enough for us. We need to consolidate our finances and, above all, we need a very clear plan as to which projects are to be implemented. Among other things, this is about the redesign of the city center and also about location policy. Where does Oberwart want to go and if the mayor doesn't set the direction, who will?", says SPÖ parliamentary group spokesman Councillor Christian Dax.

If the SPÖ wants to lean back, then so be it. I stand by my responsibility as mayor and am ready for constructive cooperation.

Georg Rosner, Bürgermeister Stadtgemeinde Oberwart

Only last year, the municipality approved a record budget of 24.5 million euros. At that time, there was also talk of no new borrowing. One year later, it is clear that this has not been achieved in the district suburb. "The state is investing more money than ever before in Oberwart," says Dax.

"Falling revenue shares, inflation and rising personnel costs are an enormous challenge not only in Oberwart, but in all municipalities. However, we are certain that the citizens will certainly not have to pay for this. There is potential for savings and there are plans and if the SPÖ does not want to bear the responsibility for this, then so be it," countered the head of the town. However, in view of the current economic situation, drawing up a budget for the coming year is more difficult than ever before, emphasizes Rosner.