Pirna is facing a financial crisis: 30 million euros minus in the 2024 budget!

Pirna is facing a financial crisis: 30 million euros minus in the 2024 budget!

In the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains, the financial situation is becoming increasingly worrying. The district expects a deficit of a whopping 30 million euros in the budget for 2024. District Administrator Michael Geisler (CDU) warns that underfunding at the local level can no longer be viewed as a short-term problem. Citizens rightly expect an efficient administration and a solid infrastructure, but expenses massively exceed income while reserves are increasingly being used up. The deficit will only continue to rise unless urgent countermeasures are taken, as Borkener Zeitung reports.

Under the current circumstances, the district and the municipalities are confronted with a multitude of tasks, but only receive inadequate reimbursement from both the federal government and the Free State of Saxony. Geisler makes it clear that transferring further tasks is no longer acceptable and calls for more intensive and structural financing of the social burden by the state. In order to ensure financial stability, the district administrator is calling for a return to a solid financial policy instead of the current uncertain situation.

Budget planning 2025

Pirna District Office explained. The deficit therefore amounts to around 10 million euros.

The district finances its income through various allocations, cost reimbursements and performance fees. What is striking is that around 54 percent of the district's income comes from allocations from the Free State of Saxony. In order to ensure municipal tasks and the equal supply of residents, the budget provides for a district levy rate of 37.41 percent, which represents an increase of 2.51 percent compared to the previous year.

The financial situation of the municipalities

However, the challenges are not limited to the district. The Saxon Association of Cities and Municipalities (SSG) recently published a half-year balance sheet showing an alarming total deficit of 871 million euros in municipal budgets for 2025 - a new negative record that exceeds the previous one of 682 million euros. The main causes of this misery are rising personnel and social expenses as well as falling income. A further increase in spending is expected in the third quarter due to tariff increases. Around half of the deficit alone is attributable to the large cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz, which together recorded a loss of over 421 million euros, while the rural districts suffered a loss of 193 million euros, as MDR reports.

In view of these gloomy forecasts, the municipalities are urgently calling for support from the state and federal governments in order to close the financial gaps and not further endanger the population's trust in the performance of the administration. So the problems are big and a solution is becoming increasingly urgent.