Budget speech: CDU

Dear Mr Mayor
Dear department heads and employees of the administration,
Dear colleagues on the Bocholt City Council,
Dear members of the audience,

At today's meeting, we will adopt the 2024 budget for the city of Bocholt. The budget envisages a deficit of just under EUR 30 million in the profit plan. This deficit is sobering, if not frightening, and Bocholt is no different to most other municipalities, including in the Münsterland region. Increased costs are the biggest problem in almost all cities and municipalities. High wage settlements for municipal employees and permanent additional expenditure for the integration and accommodation of asylum seekers are putting a strain on budgets.

In addition, the economic situation is tense and tax revenues are expected to fall. The federal government is also doing its part to overburden local authorities with bureaucratic benefits such as the reform of citizenship and housing benefits. In Bocholt, for example, this means that personnel costs will increase by around €7.5 million compared to the previous year, and Bocholt will also have to spend around €7.5 million on refugee care after deducting all federal and state subsidies. Incidentally, this deficit would be even higher without the accommodation at Takenkamp, because Bocholt's concept of initial accommodation in slightly larger units has clear advantages over smaller units, both in terms of quality and cost.

In contrast to many other municipalities, Bocholt is in a comparatively comfortable financial situation. Thanks to good annual results, especially in 2021 and 2022, we have a solid ratio of equity to debt in the city's balance sheet, and a well-filled equalisation reserve gives us the opportunity to review and, if necessary, adjust the structure of services and administrative efficiency in a concentrated and well-considered manner in the coming years.

Cuts in services must be decided by politicians, but we expect the administration itself to continuously work on efficiency and have therefore applied for a further general saving of one per cent in addition to the global reduction in expenditure proposed by the administration, which was also approved by a majority. In any case, we will ensure that the organisation in the administration is subject to permanent optimisation, including through digitalisation, as we are increasingly noticing that it is not only difficult to finance positions, but also increasingly difficult to fill them.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the federal government will implement the Union's good proposals, such as switching to benefits in kind in migration policy or returning to reasonable sanctions for young, healthy recipients of citizen's allowance who refuse to take up work. Implementing our proposals would reduce the burden on the state at all levels. In this respect, we will have to sit down together in Bocholt across all political groups and put the organisation and range of services to the test. However, it should always be borne in mind that once structures have been broken up, they no longer exist. Due to the majority situation in this council, no political group can decide anything alone. We can therefore only scrutinise services and structures together.

In this context, I would like to thank many of my colleagues from the Council who are present here, especially our political rivals. The budget debate was very focussed and constructive, which is not the case in all municipalities. However, this was only possible because the administration as a whole, but in particular Jennifer Schlaghecken and her team in the treasury department, provided excellent preparatory work. Mrs Schlaghecken, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you and your staff for the intensive and very good work in preparing the budget.

Another good example of constructive cooperation is the new ecological commercial space concept, which is essentially based on a proposal drawn up by the CDU and the Greens and uses a well-organised matrix to subject company applications for commercial space to a comprehensible assessment. This concept was then adopted by a clear majority in the Council in February of this year.

We did not perceive the inspiration of our colleague Monika Ludwig, who to this day boasts on the Bocholt Greens' homepage that she intervened with NRW Minister Oliver Krischer against the funding of part of the Nordring, as being so constructive. He then also removed an approved subsidy from the list before the regional council thankfully cancelled the cancellation with the votes of the CDU and FDP.

It is perfectly okay for us to disagree on factual issues. We as the CDU are in favour of the Nordring, you are against it. However, we believe it is a bad and not at all constructive idea to try and damage the city financially by going against a decision that was democratically made in this council.

In this context, I would also like to mention that many local authorities are already discussing increases in property and trade tax out of necessity. We as the CDU clearly reject this for Bocholt. We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. I would also like to emphasise that the problem is consumer spending and not investment. Because some of my colleagues will later repeat their particularly popular wisdom that we could do without the extension to the town hall or that it would be better not to build the Nordring. Just like the hopeless application to the responsible NRW minister to revoke the protection of historical monuments, which the city party is now proposing, which would jeopardise the considerable subsidies that have already been promised.

With such ideas, you are not relieving the current, consumptive budget by a single cent! Neither the town hall refurbishment nor the Nordring are part of the deficit in the operating budget! On the contrary: once the town hall is completed, we will have the opportunity to end expensive tenancies for the town and sell other buildings. Incidentally, the idea of turning the town hall into a cultural centre would not only increase the investment costs for the town hall, but would also significantly increase the city's consumptive expenditure because we would then need more space.
would be needed.

Our mayor inherited many construction sites when he took office. One of these was the inadequate structure of EWIBO, which had got out of hand and was then joined by the public prosecutor's investigation into those responsible at the time, which is still ongoing and will hopefully come to a conclusion soon. However, with a great deal of work and admittedly high costs for legal and tax experts, the company was restructured and rescued. The asset freeze that has now been lifted gives us the opportunity to finalise the restructuring so that employees can concentrate fully on their work again. At this point, we as the CDU would like to expressly thank the employees of EWIBO for their commitment, perseverance and patience: we need you for the diverse social tasks in Bocholt, it is good that you and you exist!

Another ongoing challenge is the development of the city centre. The integrated urban development concept is being revised as part of the new urban development guidelines. The ISEK and the city marketing's new strategy concept provide a good basis for further developing the city centre. The funds for this, including for the remodelling of Ravardistrasse, have been set aside in the budget. In this context, the Stadtsparkasse's Markt 8 project, located in the very heart of the city centre, represents a great opportunity for further urban development, which must be worked out together in the coming year. We should also consider creative approaches. In future, retail space alone will certainly no longer ensure the attractiveness of a city centre, and even eagerly awaited catering businesses will not be able to fill all the space due to staff shortages.

In our view, the KuBAaI project, which has long been highly controversial, is now developing into a great success. The Lernwerk will soon be ready for occupation, 375 new residential units with a high proportion of subsidised housing are currently being built on the Mecking site and another attractive building with small residential units is being planned by a Bocholt investor next to the Lernwerk. KuBAai is a successful example of how creativity, persistence even in the face of resistance and perseverance can pay off in the long term in the interplay between administration and politics.

For the CDU, the cohesion of society in clubs and the integrative power of sports or shooting clubs, for example, is a key social factor. For this reason, we have once again decided to support important infrastructure projects for clubs such as SC TUB Mussum and DJK Barlo this year, despite the difficult budget situation. Like many other voluntary organisations in our city, these clubs do outstanding integration work and, in the case of SC TUB Mussum, also inclusion work. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank all volunteers in our city - they make a significant contribution to making the city of Bocholt so lovable and liveable!

We would also like to thank all the non-profit organisations that are involved, for example, in the social sector, in care or as providers of our daycare facilities. Without these organisations, it would not be possible for Bocholt and certainly many other municipalities to even begin to fulfil the existing legal entitlement to a daycare place. We are pleased that further daycare centres will be built or expanded in the near future. Building is one thing, operating in times of staff shortages is something completely different. In this context, we would also like to thank the many childminders who provide excellent childcare services.

Finally, there is also an item that is not included in the budget, but which we believe could be significant and should therefore also be mentioned here. As you all know, 1. FC Bocholt is currently flying high and leads the Regionalliga West table by a wide margin. As things stand, it has a chance of being promoted to the 3rd division. This is not only a great opportunity for the club, but also for the city of Bocholt, despite all the challenges that come with it. I'm certainly going out on a limb here, but for many Bocholt residents, FC is a living example of urban development.

The CDU parliamentary group will support the FC as much as possible against the background of transparency, openness, legal certainty and consideration of the interests of third parties by the club. In our view, this applies to the prioritisation of the administration's work as well as to necessary investments in infrastructure. We would love it if we were one of the 50 or so local authorities in Germany that could offer professional football.

Finally, I would like to mention that the CDU parliamentary group will be voting in favour of the draft budget now before us. In our view, it forms a good working basis for the administration's activities in 2024. The measures listed there will help to ensure that our home town of Bocholt is strengthened and will continue to be worth living and loving in the future. But they must also be implemented! As Erich Kästner said so aptly: "There is nothing good unless you do it."

With this in mind, on behalf of the parliamentary group, I would like to thank all employees of the administration for their good work in 2023, wish you all a happy and blessed Advent and Christmas season with your families and hope to see you again in 2024.

Thank you very much for your attention.