St. Veit is struggling with strained finances: Council calls for austerity measures!

St. Veit is struggling with strained finances: Council calls for austerity measures!

The St. Veiter municipal council recently approved the financial statements for the previous year, a step that is highly relevant given the current difficult financial conditions. Loud Click Carinthia The city's financial situation will remain tense in 2024. High transfer payments, rising personnel costs and persistent interest burdens present the city with enormous challenges.

These problems are further compounded by high inflation, which affects almost all areas of urban management. Mayor Martin Kulmer (SPÖ) emphasizes the need for sound budget management and emphasizes that targeted savings are necessary to cushion the effects of cost increases.

Budget data and improvements

There is positive news regarding the budget result: the negative result could be improved compared to the original estimate. In 2024, local tax will reach around 7.3 million euros, which corresponds to an increase of around 7 percent compared to the previous year. The city's operating income is around 50 million euros, an increase of around 3 million euros.

Furthermore, the increase in income shares falls short of expectations; these only increase by 1 percent to 150,000 euros. The stagnating revenue shares account for 28 percent of total income and are to be assessed as critical. In addition to income, expenses are also increasing, particularly through transfer payments to the state of Carinthia, which have increased by around 15 percent.

Investments and challenges

According to the figures presented, an operating surplus of around 1,372,000 euros will be achieved in the 2024 financial statements, which represents an improvement of around 1.37 million euros. In addition, the result of the investment management improves by 1,105,550 euros. Nevertheless, the net financing balance is minus around 2,066,750 euros, which illustrates the city's financial challenges.

The results of the current mayor barometer from the German Institute for Urban Studies (Difu) also show that municipal finances represent the most pressing area of ​​action for the mayors in 2025. 70 percent of OBs rate the topic as more than twice as important as other topics, which underlines the particular urgency of this problem. In the survey, conducted between January 23 and March 12, 2025, municipal finances were named as the most important issue on the agenda for the next five years. The maintenance and expansion of the municipal infrastructure, especially in the area of ​​schools, plays a central role here.

These current debates on city finances demonstrate the need to reduce non-monetary barriers to investment and address the investment backlog in education, which amounts to 54.76 billion euros. The share of municipal investments in public investments is around 40 percent, which further increases the responsibility and urgency for cities to receive support through additional funds from the federal and state governments.

The situation in St. Veit thus reflects a larger trend that can be observed not only locally, but also at the level of German cities, where 135 out of 197 mayors took part in the survey, corresponding to a participation rate of 68.5 percent, as shown in the results of the OB Barometer 2025 was detained.