Investments in schools & transport: District Administrator presents budget for 2023
At the next and last district council meeting for this year on 15 December in the multi-purpose hall in Goddelsheim, District Administrator Jürgen van der Horst will present and justify the budget statutes and the budget plan of the Waleck-Frankenberg district for the coming year 2023. This will initiate the public budget deliberations for the coming year.
According to this, the Waldeck-Frankenberg district is planning for revenues of around 297.7 million euros in the 2023 results budget. Compared to last year, this is additional income of around 37 million euros. Expenditure is planned at around 301.5 million euros, which corresponds to an increase of around 37.4 million euros compared to the previous year. Thus, including the extraordinary result, the district is planning an overall result of minus 2.7 million euros.
In the area of social benefits, expenditure will increase by around 14.8 million euros, this will be offset by around 10 million euros in additional income. Both are predominantly due to the current refugee situation, in which the district will continue to provide care and support for those seeking protection. Another 11.5 million euros relate to the school sector: this increase is largely due to higher operating costs for electricity, gas and school transport, among other things.
School levy increases, district levy decreases
After the school levy for the cities and municipalities was reduced by half a percentage point in each of the years 2020 and 2021, the additional expenditure now makes an increase of 2.37 percent to a total of 18.87 percent necessary. In return, however, the general district levy for the cities and municipalities will be reduced by 0.87 per cent to 29.04 per cent. Reserves from previous years are still available to compensate for the deficit in the results budget.
17, 3 million euros for schools, 11.9 million euros for transport
The Waldeck-Frankenberg district continues to plan investments of about 43.3 million euros in the coming year, after investing about 50.5 million euros in 2022. Of the investment volume for the coming financial year, 24.4 million euros will be financed by loans. Since at the same time 12.3 million euros in existing debts are to be repaid, this means a net new debt of 11.8 million euros.
Of the investments, around 17.3 million euros are allocated to the investment area of the district as school authority - especially for the modernisation, renovation and new construction of school buildings in Waldeck-Frankenberg. However, further investments from the federal and state digital pact are also planned. Around 11.9 million euros have been budgeted for investments in the area of district road construction and transport: Among other things, the expansion of the district road 43 between Haina and Bad Wildungen-Armsfeld and the district road 50 between Immighausen and Ober-Ense are in the planned construction programme.
A change is envisaged in the financing of the Frankenberg district hospital within the framework of the budget for the coming year: For the financial year 2023, the budget plans provide for a deficit balance for the district hospital. Apart from this, however, there will be no further subsidies in the results budget, investment subsidies, loans or increases in share capital.
The budget statutes and budget plan will first be presented to the members of the district council in the coming session and justified by the district administrator and then forwarded to the district council committees for discussion. In one of the next district council meetings in the new year, it will be discussed by the parliamentary groups and finally a joint draft will be adopted, which will be submitted to the Regional Council Kassel as supervisory authority for examination and approval.