Ostalbkreis in the crisis: household with a minus of 38 million euros!

Ostalbkreis in the crisis: household with a minus of 38 million euros!

The Ostalbkreis is faced with a financially tense Situation that has been known for a long time. Due to this situation, the district council had decided at the end of 2022 to use working groups whose task was to identify potential savings in various areas. An ambitious goal has been formulated: the district should save 6.5 million euros. In the recently presented household intermediate report for 2024, district treasurer Karl Kurz announced that the total profit budget for 2024 had a minus of 12.7 million euros. In addition, there is an additional deficit of 25 million euros from the clinic area, which is further burdening the financial situation.

"We come up with a minus of 38 million euros in the profit and loss account," said Kurz in the finance committee. These figures illustrate the challenge in front of which the district is standing. In particular, the clinics contribute strongly to the tense financial situation. In December, a deficit of 43.5 million euros was predicted in the clinics's business plan. Despite the order to the clinic management to save 8.5 million euros, the actual forecast corresponds to a deficit of around 60 million euros.

Personnel costs and savings in buildings

The household learned a little relief from savings in the area of personnel costs, where 300,000 euros could be saved. However, additional one -off costs from a grade reform of around 650,000 euros burden the overall result. This showed that the savings potential was limited here. In the case of building costs, on the other hand, saving of over 2.6 million euros was obtained by postponing numerous planned renovations to later budget years. However, Kämmerer briefly warned that this strategy is not sustainable in the long term because it is lived on the substance without making any necessary investments.

In addition, the district was able to save almost one million euros for so -called steep expenditure, including things such as office supplies and business trips. Despite these savings, the financial situation remains tense because the income from the real estate transfer tax is below expectations. Instead of the planned 17 million euros, Kurz only expects 15.8 million euros. He also expects around one million euros less from key assignments from the country, which is mainly due to stagnating tax revenue in Baden-Württemberg.

increasing social spending and problems in public transport

Another point of the burden is public transport (public transport). Here the district must expect additional expenses of two million euros caused by the Germany ticket. This cost increase makes it impossible to implement planned savings at all. On the other hand, it is positive that the costs for school transport can be reduced by increased state funding by half a million euros.

In social assistance, on the other hand, there is an increase in expenses by 4.8 million euros. The main cause is increasing costs for care and integration aids. The job center, on the other hand, briefly causes less costs than provided, with savings of almost one million euros. These mixed perspectives illustrate the challenges with which the Ostalbkreis is confronted while trying to reach annual goals as part of the budget and at the same time get the financial burdens under control.

The district council and the institutions involved are faced with a complex puzzle that has to be solved to ensure the financial stability of the Ostalb district. A reliable long -term plan seems to be able to better counter future challenges.