Dispute over 5 billion: Saxony is fighting for a fair share of the money!

Dispute over 5 billion: Saxony is fighting for a fair share of the money!

Things are simmering in Saxony: Since the meeting between members of the state government and representatives of the municipalities in the State Chancellery in August, the discussion about the distribution of around five billion euros from the federal government's new special fund has flared up. How Sächsische.de Reportedly, central questions about financial distribution were raised here, which have irritated many a local government official.

At the first meeting of the negotiators, an agreement was reached according to which ten percent of the annual installments, i.e. over 400 million euros, should be available to the Free State of Saxony. These funds, referred to internally as the “MP pot”, are aimed at financing several large-scale projects. These include the modernization of the state fire brigade school in Nardt with 80 million euros, a master plan to secure industry in southwest Saxony, various digitalization projects and, last but not least, support for Saxony's Olympic bid. However, infrastructure projects for Saxon hospitals that had already been agreed upon were unfortunately not taken into account in the new paper.

Funding distribution and protests

What exactly does the distribution look like? A total of 90 percent of the money is to be distributed, with 40 percent going to the largest cities such as Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz as well as to rural districts. This means that almost 1.74 billion euros will go to the municipalities, paid out in three tranches of 580 million euros each every four years. A significant portion of this money, over one billion euros, is reserved for municipal projects, with 40 percent earmarked for engineering structures, 20 percent for school and hospital construction and 10 percent for road construction and local transport.

Despite this allocation of funds, there is resistance: protests from local representatives are loud MDR felt, as only 36 percent of federal payments go to the municipalities as a free budget. This has prompted those responsible to call an emergency meeting on the distribution agreement in order to hold those responsible accountable. There are also repeated calls for change among municipal negotiators.

Comparison with Saxony-Anhalt and Bundestag vote

A look at Saxony-Anhalt shows how it could work: There, 60 percent of the federal money is paid out to the municipalities as lump sums. “This is good business for the municipalities,” said President Andreas Dittmann (SPD) of the Saxony-Anhalt Association of Cities and Municipalities. Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) confirmed the benefits for the communities by emphasizing that the communities in Saxony-Anhalt clearly benefit from the special fund.

For Saxony, the approval of the Bundestag and the vote in the Bundesrat are due on October 17th. With an amendment to the Basic Law in March, the federal government laid the foundation for the special fund, which includes over 500 billion euros for infrastructure and climate neutrality. This is intended to respond to the challenges in public infrastructure not only in Saxony, but throughout the country. Immense amounts of money can be spent within twelve years to get broken roads and dilapidated bridges under control. The also provides information about this Federal Government.

The situation remains exciting: While some municipalities are hoping for an early solution, the pressure on those responsible is increasing to find a fairer distribution of funds. The coming weeks will show whether Saxony will be able to divide up the special fund in such a way that everyone benefits and the infrastructure projects can actually be realized.