Municipal finances

More and more mayors are sounding the alarm

Ailing finances: More expenditure than income. Many municipalities will no longer be able to balance their budgets for 2025.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/Marco2811 - stock.adobe.com)

Municipalities are short of money. Away from the political debates, more and more mayors are calling for additional financial aid, otherwise their budgets are in danger of collapsing

The call for unscheduled funds to relieve struggling municipal budgets is getting louder and louder. The political exchange of blows between the SPÖ and ÖVP almost fades into the background in the face of the warning from the heads of the municipalities. The list mayors from Jennersdorf, Eltendorf and Parndorf, who are in favor of the waste deal canceled by the ÖVP, FPÖ and Greens in order to quickly flush money into the municipal coffers, have also recently called for the debate to be brought back to an objective level.

Doskozil wants to renegotiate waste deal
Provincial governor Hans Peter Doskozil (SPÖ), on the other hand, announced that he would make another attempt to revisit structural measures and options, such as those relating to the waste association.

Many municipalities have to budget negatively
However, if there is no fresh money for the municipalities, more and more local leaders are announcing that they want to adopt their budget estimates for 2025 with huge deficits. In the shopping metropolis of Parndorf alone, the deficit for 2025 amounts to 1.5 million euros. Up to now, the municipality has received around 2 million euros from revenue shares every year, plus a chunk of money from municipal tax revenues. "Now we are at the point where there is no more potential for savings and even if more businesses settle here, we will be punished extra," says local leader Wolfgang Kovacs (LIPA).

Let the dear politicians from Eisenstadt come and lay off employees of the municipality. I will definitely not do that.

Wolfgang Kovacs, Bürgermeister der Gemeinde Parndorf (LIPA)

He would not be able to comply with the legal requirements for a balanced budget. "We have 110 employees and I'm not going to lay anyone off. Let the dear politicians from Eisenstadt come and take over," Kovacs teases in view of the financial difficulties in the municipal coffers. In 39 years of municipal politics, he has never experienced a situation like this. "In Burgenland, you get the feeling that the state is swimming in money. On the other hand, as mayor, I have to explain to the fire department that they are not getting new helmets because all the money is being taken from the municipality," said Kovacs.

The mayors of the municipalities of Pöttelsdorf, Zemendorf-Stöttera, Marz, Antau, Krensdorf and the deputy mayors of Sieggraben and Forchtenstein (all ÖVP) also criticized the high deductions made by the state and the lack of transparency when the budget forecast for 2025 was presented to the municipalities far too late.

VP local leaders criticize high deductions by the state
"We can't defend ourselves because the state retains the funds directly. The calculation of the deductions is a big black box: transparency is in short supply," say the Turks. Their demand: a genuine municipal package and the abolition of the state levy in order to avert financial ruin. The ÖVP politicians also consider the retroactive settlement of the hospital levy by the state to be particularly precarious.

Political debates between SPÖ and ÖVP over relief package
In any case, the political roles are clearly divided in the case of the ailing municipal finances. According to the SPÖ, the economic and financial policy of the federal government is responsible for the misery. The ÖVP believes that the SPÖ's all-party government is to blame. This will also be discussed on Tuesday at a special state parliament initiated by the ÖVP. The only thing the parties agree on is that municipalities need financial aid.

Waste deal would have relieved municipalities by 311 million euros
The situation is dramatic, emphasize the heads of the municipalities. Recently, there has even been talk of individual municipalities no longer being able to pay salaries. A situation for which SPÖ party chairman Roland Fürst holds the People's Party responsible. "The state's relief package, which the ÖVP rejected at the beginning of the year, would have provided more than 311 million euros by 2030," says Fürst, who renews the demand for an "acute billion" from the federal government. Deputy Governor Astrid Eisenkopf is also calling for structural measures from the federal government to support municipalities in the long term.

ÖVP wanted to enable municipalities to take out more loans
The Turks, on the other hand, are sticking to their veto for the "dirty waste deal". Instead, they wanted to allow municipalities to take out loans for ongoing operations in order to have more room for maneuver. This deal, which was negotiated with the deputy governor, was prevented by the governor, says club chairman Markus Ulram. "This is a shabby attempt to drive a wedge into the provincial government," counters Eisenkopf. Burgenland will do everything it can to support municipalities.