Major challenge

Initiatives to find a way out of the crisis

Many major contracts have to wait. Uncertain financing delays costly projects.

(Bild: zVg)

The situation is tense. Municipalities are facing enormous challenges. Many contracts worth millions have come to a standstill. Fresh impetus is urgently needed.

Municipalities play a decisive role in the labor market. In difficult times, when many municipalities are facing major financial challenges, their role in creating jobs and supporting job seekers is becoming increasingly important.

Burgenland's 171 municipalities have invested 600 million euros in regional contracts over the past five years.

SPÖ-Gemeindesprecher Thomas Hoffmann

"The municipalities are reliable partners for the economy. With their commitment to local companies, they make a full contribution to stability," explains SPÖ municipal spokesperson Thomas Hoffmann, Member of Parliament and Mayor of Schattendorf. In addition, the municipalities open up special employment prospects for the long-term unemployed and people with disabilities.

"The time has long since come to launch new initiatives"
 It's not all plain sailing. As head of the town, Hoffmann took an alternative opportunity to have urgently needed maintenance work carried out. By involving municipal employees and cooperating with the AMS, the long-term unemployed are involved in some projects. This type of cooperation is nothing new. When it comes to the maintenance of green spaces, for example, municipalities like to call on jobseekers to carry out the unavoidable tasks in spring and/or summer on a temporary basis.

Austerity package as a burden
However, Hoffmann has had to put up with the criticism that he is damaging the economy. He rejects the criticism and counters: "The federal government of recent years has left behind a financial fiasco. Now a multi-billion euro austerity package is being imposed that will burden ordinary citizens, municipalities and small and medium-sized enterprises." Ways out of the crisis are needed. "In implementing municipal infrastructure projects, the state will continue to support the municipalities in a targeted manner - and more profoundly than the other federal states," is the announcement from the state parliament in Eisenstadt.