In order to better cushion the crisis, the country will take on new debt next year. Municipalities should also benefit from this. Above all, they insist on help with the costs for refugees.
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - the state and local authorities got stuck in their financial negotiations on Monday evening and finally adjourned. Finance Minister Danyal Bayaz (Greens) said on the night after the approximately six-hour meeting in Stuttgart: "We all knew that negotiations in the Joint Finance Commission would not be easy this year. We were able to work through numerous municipal issues, it is our common goal , to bring the outstanding questions and topics to a good solution." There is no date for the next meeting yet.
The chief executive of the district council, Alexis von Komorowski, spoke of a "constructive round of negotiations". Both sides are trying to find a solution as soon as possible when it comes to distributing the costs for refugees, he told the German Press Agency. According to reports, they are not that far apart when it comes to refugee costs. The municipalities actually wanted all costs reimbursed by the state. However, the country only wants to pay a lump sum.
The main concern is the 138,000 Ukrainian refugees in the southwest. The background is that the Ukrainian refugees have been receiving Hartz IV benefits since June 1 and are no longer classified as asylum seekers. As a result of this system change, the municipalities have additional financial requirements. According to reports, a high three-digit million amount is at stake here.
The state is under pressure because the federal government is providing significantly less money than the states are asking for. In the coming year, Baden-Württemberg will receive an additional 197 million euros from Berlin for refugees from the Ukraine, but the costs are estimated to be many times over. In addition, the federal government has promised a general refugee-related lump sum for the next year, from which the state is to receive 164 million euros. According to the Ministry of Migration in Stuttgart, 22,000 asylum seekers have come to Baden-Württemberg this year in addition to refugees from Ukraine.
The country recently announced that it intends to take on new debt of 1.25 billion euros in the coming year. Here, the Ministry of Finance uses a clause in the debt brake, according to which the country can obtain new loans because of the gloomy economic forecast. Municipalities should now also benefit from this.
The conversation on Monday evening also dealt with the demand from the city, community and district councils to remove bureaucratic hurdles and state requirements. The heads of the municipal associations want the country to convene a "convention on the future". Most recently, in a joint letter with several business associations to Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens), they wrote: "The time for unrestrained saddle-ups with standards, legal claims and government benefit commitments is over." However, there was no agreement between the representatives of the state and local authorities on the question of which format this topic could be tackled with.
In addition to Bayaz, the head of the state chancellery Florian Stegmann (Greens) and the president of the municipal council Peter Kurz, the head of the municipal council Steffen Jäger and the district council Joachim Walter were also present at the negotiations.
