Politics
The accounts for 2021 will be discussed today and tomorrow in the Vienna City Council. It provides for new borrowing of 1.28 billion euros. That is 600 million euros less than budgeted for. The opposition is still critical.
The deficit in 2021 was lower, among other things, because internal savings could be achieved, explained City Councilor Peter Hanke (SPÖ) at the presentation in May. The volume of the statement of accounts is 16.2 billion euros. Investments and city assets increased in the previous year to 2.4 and 32.2 billion euros respectively. The reserves were also increased to EUR 2.1 billion.
The lion’s share for health, social affairs and education
However, the level of debt has also increased. It now totals nine billion euros. If you look at the debt per capita, Vienna is in the middle of the federal states, according to Hanke. In any case, through savings in all departments, it was possible to reduce the budgeted deficit of EUR 1.9 billion.
The lion’s share of expenditure was in the areas of health, social affairs and education. These funds make up around half of Vienna’s total budget. Once again, most of the revenue comes from federal revenue shares. Own taxes and fees account for 11.1 and 3.2 percent of income respectively.
opposition with much criticism
The opposition was not very happy with the figures when they were presented and will probably not give their approval in the municipal council either. The ÖVP saw the city far away from a “consolidation course”. The Greens warned that the impending interest rate hikes in particular posed a dangerous threat to Vienna’s stability. For the FPÖ it is “no wonder” that the level of debt is increasing “immeasurably”. Because it is a fact that hundreds of millions of euros are spent on social assistance for people who do not have Austrian citizenship or even legal deportation notices.