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Financial distress on the Bodden: Vorpommern-Greifswald in crisis mode!
The Vorpommern-Greifswald district will decide on a supplementary budget in 2025 in a difficult financial situation and reduce the district levy.
Financial distress on the Bodden: Vorpommern-Greifswald in crisis mode!
The financial situation in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district is currently causing alarm. On Monday, the district council in Pasewalk approved the supplementary budget for 2025, which has a negative balance of around 71 million euros in the financial budget. The topic stirs people's minds and is reflected in a drastic reduction in the district levy from 48.5 to 42 percent, which was intensively discussed by the parliamentary groups. The CDU's proposal to reduce the levy to 42 percent received the greatest approval, but concerns about municipal financing remain ostsee-zeitung.de reported.
The district faces a huge additional requirement of 30 million euros by the end of 2024, and there are also 81.8 million euros in deviations that still need to be discussed. “The situation is catastrophic,” said Finance Director Dietger Wille, who described the challenges as a “gigantic problem”. For a total of twelve years, expenditure in the youth sector has increased fourfold - a circumstance that is putting additional strain on municipalities. District Administrator Michael Sack emphasizes that the communities need “room to breathe” in order to carry out their important tasks such as financing schools, school transport and local transport.
Challenges and solutions
In recent years, the financial situation of German municipalities has deteriorated significantly. In 2023, around 11,000 cities and municipalities recorded a financing deficit of seven billion euros. In 2022, the municipalities were able to achieve a surplus of 2.6 billion euros. This development is attributed in particular to the increase in social benefits, which rose to over 75 billion euros in 2023 - a trend that is becoming apparent and is hitting Western Pomerania-Greifswald hard. bundestag.de also sees a continued burden on municipal budgets, as the forecasts for the coming years suggest additional deficits.
The mayor of Ueckermünde, Jürgen Kliewe, has also spoken out and is calling for more financial leeway for the municipalities. He sees the need for not only local, but also state and federal political actors to contribute to solving this problem. A consolidation strategy that has already been adopted for 2026 and 2027 is intended to help create a balanced balance in future budget approaches. Support is required from the state or federal government in order to overcome the current imbalance.
A look into the future
Many municipalities face similar challenges to those in Vorpommern-Greifswald. According to reformkompass.de, 37 percent of all municipalities in Germany have significant budget problems. It will be exciting to see how political actors will adapt to this crisis in the coming months and years. The Vorpommern-Greifswald district must now urgently find solutions so that the financial pillars of municipal services of general interest do not falter.