Property tax reform: municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate require security from Mainz!

Property tax reform: municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate require security from Mainz!

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the municipalities are faced with pressing financial challenges. The property tax reform, the implementation of which is scheduled to start on January 1, 2025, has significant problems. Numerous cities and municipalities report a reduced property tax volume, which further exacerbates the critical budget. Daniel Klingelmeier, General Secretary The Free Voter Rhineland-Palatinate, emphasizes: "The traffic light government in Mainz leaves the municipalities and citizens in Rhineland-Palatinate to the last minute." According to Klingelmeier, the planned regulations for the differentiation of the lifting rates in property tax B are necessary to ensure a fair tax distribution and to avoid an imbalance in the tax burden.

criticism of financial policy

In addition, the Rhineland-Palatinate state government has caused a debt of around 6 billion euros to the municipalities in the past two decades, while at the same time more and more demands are being brought to them without providing the necessary financial resources. Joachim Streit, Chairman of the Free Voter Landtag Group, calls for an old debt solution that could relieve the liquidity loans from the municipalities. According to the dispute, despite a constant improvement in the financial Situation of municipal households, around 4.9 billion euros are still to be reduced to loans, which can hardly be achieved by the planned takeover of 3 billion euros. "The implementation of the old debt solution threatens to fail in many places. The local communities are falling behind again," criticizes Streit.

The free voters make it clear that the reform should not be used to unilaterally increase the tax burden and require a fair and transparent implementation of the property tax reform. The situation not only represents a financial stress factor for many municipalities, but also causes resentment among the citizens, which are under pressure due to rising tax burdens. The Free Voters Rhineland-Palatinate urge that the interests of citizens and municipalities are focused on in order to effectively cope with the challenges of the coming years. As in the report by mrn news href = "https://fw-landtag-rlp.de/2022/09/21/die- Altschuldenloesung-fuer-kommune-reicht-mumlung-falsch/"> Free voters Rheinland-Pfalz can be read, it remains to be seen how the state government will react to these critical voices.