New head of council

Many millions have to be saved for the budget

Due to excessive debt, the municipal council in Klagenfurt will not even make a budget proposal on Wednesday. Mayor Christian Scheider presented his cost-cutting measures. "30 employees are retiring and will not be replaced." Many millions can be saved.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, the municipal council meeting will take place, but finance officer Constance Mochar (SP) will not make a budget proposal for 2025 - the city's debts are too high. Mayor Christian Scheider (Team Kärnten) presented his cost-cutting measures at City Hall on Tuesday. "For the first time, there were talks with the department heads plus the responsible city councillors. Of the 1807 positions in the town hall, only 1600 are filled. 30 are retiring this year and will not be filled. Two million euros can thus be saved over the next few years. However, we are continuing to make savings. A five-year plan is starting immediately to ensure that the number of posts in the town hall continues to fall."

Isabella Jandl (with Mayor Christian Scheider) starts her job as municipal director in Klagenfurt tomorrow.(Bild: SK)

A monitoring system is being introduced to tackle the ever-increasing amount of overtime. "This is an early warning system, so to speak. The new municipal director Isabella Jandl takes up her post tomorrow. Every six months, the heads of department will have to inform Jandl of their employees' overtime, which often can no longer be compensated with time off in lieu but must be paid out."

Early warning system for overtime

Jandl has a lot of hard work ahead of her anyway. "She has to scrutinize the system with the state and make comparisons with other cities," says Scheider. He also put new figures on the table. "This year we have to transfer 109.6 million euros in transfer payments to the state, and we are not even asked. That's a third of the budget. In 2022, it was 92.8 million, and the trend is upwards."

According to Scheider, the budget must still be feasible. "On Wednesday, we are supporting the FP's urgent motion for a budget estimate. Mochar is obliged to present one." The head of the city rejects a zero pay round, which the VP had recently called for and which would bring in 4.9 million euros. "We only decided with the VP in June to adopt the federal budget. I can't fall over now."

Perhaps the city senate will decide to block the highest service classes. "In fact, the 3.5 percent for employees is just a compensation for inflation. Perhaps they will be socially staggered. You can talk to Team Carinthia. External consultants have a say in the budget crisis. The state is even paying 150,000 euros for this."

The town hall already has to set aside reserves of two million euros annually for overtime, 2.7 million euros are needed for overtime payments - reserves for unused vacation are even higher. And that's not all: 33 million euros are currently missing from the budget. Klagenfurt is doing everything it can to make the necessary savings to at least make a budget possible from March or April.