Budget speech: City party

Dear Mr Mayor Kerkhoff
Dear Mrs Schlaghecken, Treasurer
Ladies and gentlemen of the administration,
Ladies and Gentlemen of the City Council,
Honourable representatives of the press,
Dear citizens,

We reject the present budget. We reject it because the gap between income and expenditure is drastically widening and there is no improvement in sight in the medium-term financial planning. On the contrary, Mrs Schlaghecken, you are expecting an even higher budget deficit in the medium term, which will force us to take out liquidity loans as early as 2026 and will push us into budget protection in 2027.

A mountain of debt on which we will continue to build. Only by reaching into the equalisation reserve - not real money, by the way - can you prevent a budgetary downfall this year and in subsequent years. But we won't be able to keep our heads above water for too long.

So you are right to call for savings! You are right to call for voluntary city services and services with higher standards to be scrutinised (p. 16 Budget 2024). And it is certainly possible to save one or two euros here without jeopardising the entire Bocholt club landscape and the many voluntary activities. We are particularly dependent on this civic commitment. But will that be enough? Will this close the delta between income and expenditure? Will we avoid the iceberg of debt? Unfortunately, the answer is no. The small course correction will not take us off the collision course with the debt iceberg.

You, Mayor Kerkhoff, together with 354 other mayors of towns and municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia, have therefore rightly written an urgent letter to our Minister-President warning that municipal finances are overstretched due to chronic underfunding. The urgent letter refers to the cuts in federal and state allocations as well as the transfer of more and more new tasks to the municipalities without providing the necessary funds.

We see this - and we do not want to be misunderstood on this point - as the main cause of the mountain of debt that we are heading towards. This is where the parties represented at state and federal level are called upon. We are only active at municipal level. However, we are all in the same boat here and if we do not correct course massively or if an icebreaker from the federal or state government does not clear the iceberg of debt out of our way, it will inevitably mean that we are sinking!

And that is precisely why, in the context of this budget speech, we are taking the liberty of pointing out costs that we have incurred or will incur ourselves. It should therefore come as no surprise to anyone present that the first thing we mention here is the town hall refurbishment. There is a motion on the agenda today that aims to remove the listed building requirements from the town hall - and yes, it is neither in our hands - after the city council was bypassed at the time - nor in the hands of this city administration to remove the listed building requirements, but in view of the total costs for the town hall renovation, there is great potential for savings here.

I can therefore only urge you all to at least give it a try! In the event that you anticipate further delays and are therefore reluctant to do so, I would like to take this opportunity to refer you to the GWB's business plan. For 2024, zero euros have been budgeted for the town hall refurbishment - this may also be due to the fact that we currently lack an architectural firm to oversee the town hall refurbishment. The new architectural firm - if one can be found - will first have to familiarise itself with the plans. So let's use this time to give it a try! We can also think about adding another storey. After all, we are now the proud owners of the Gigaset building, which we were strongly advised against buying not so long ago.

The next thing I would like to mention is equipping the student body with digital devices. As a city, we have voluntarily placed a permanent financial burden on the budget and the budgets of many parents before honouring the promise made in the state government's coalition agreement. In our view, the schools are already well equipped digitally and this cost-intensive ignition of the turbo would not have been necessary. Looking to the future, we refer to the plans for a new location for the city museum. Here, too, there are more favourable solutions. In all of this, we must not forget that major investments will still have to be made with the construction of the new Euregio grammar school and the Maria Montessori school, the necessity of which can hardly be questioned.

Some of you may have watched the last "Wetten, dass!?" programme with a little nostalgia. With this in mind, I would like to end with a betting proposition: "Bet that nothing will be built on the site of the former fire station until the town hall refurbishment is completed?" Take advantage of the magical peace and quiet of the Christmas period to think about this betting proposition. A Merry Christmas to you and yours and a Happy New Year 2024, which we will end with a deficit of just under 30 million euros!

Jens Terbeck
Chairman of the Bocholt City Party