Havelland in a debt trap: 79.5 million needed for new schools!

Havelland in a debt trap: 79.5 million needed for new schools!

There are major financial challenges in the Havelland district that need to be clarified. As District Administrator Roger Lewandowski (CDU) announced on August 26th when presenting the budget key points for 2026, the district will be forced to take out significant amounts of loans. These amount to a total of 79.5 million euros and are primarily intended for important school construction measures. Among other things, there are plans to convert the Premnitz high school into a comprehensive school, which will cost around 12 million euros and is the focus of the current discussion. The new construction of a four-room high school in Wustermark is also estimated to cost almost 54 million euros by 2029.

The district currently has a deficit of around 11.8 million euros, which can still be offset through reserves. These reserves are expected to amount to 33.4 million euros at the end of 2025. However, an increase in expenditure in the social sector - particularly in child and youth welfare - is putting increasing strain on the budget. The support of the Havelland Kliniken group of companies will also be a significant item: up to 15 million euros per year are planned for this.

Budget freeze and planned measures

In order to keep the financial situation under control, the Havelland district has already issued a budget freeze for parts of the administration. This was decided on August 21, 2024, which affects the budgets of Department II - Social Affairs, Youth, Health and Migration as well as the Office for Building and Real Estate Management and the Economic Development Department. The budget freeze only allows legally obligatory expenditure to ensure that liquidity remains stable and obligatory social expenditure can be granted, as shown on Havelland.de is to be read.

The current forecast for the deficit for 2024 is approximately 18.5 million euros, which means that the district's financial situation could worsen further in the coming years. The planned supplementary budget will be presented to the district council on October 7, 2024. It is assumed that existing voluntary funding programs will remain unchanged, while planned spending will increase by 5 percent.

Developments at the municipal level

The situation in Havelland is part of a widespread problem in Germany, where municipal finances have been severely affected in 2023. According to the “Municipal Finance Report 2025”, tax revenues are stagnating due to a weak economy, while expenses for personnel, material expenses and social services are growing unabated. Here too, a pessimistic outlook for the coming years can be observed. The pressure on budgets will increase, especially since 219 of 294 districts have had to report a budget deficit in recent years, as the Bertelsmann Foundation reports.

With a deficit of over 13 billion euros in 2024, this highlights the need to fundamentally reform the municipal financial situation and to sustainably secure the tasks of the municipalities. The federal and state governments are called upon to work towards a lasting improvement in the local situation in order to be able to maintain social cohesion in the communities in the future.