Zwickau's mayor is calling for fairer funding for the city

Zwickau's mayor is calling for fairer funding for the city

The city of Zwickau faces major challenges when it comes to financing its infrastructure projects. Mayor Silvia Queck, who has been in office since 2022 and is actively involved in the Young Mayors Network, is committed to clear and uniform funding guidelines. In an interview, she emphasized the need for money from the special infrastructure fund to reach the city directly and easily. In Zwickau, the fourth largest city in Saxony with around 90,000 inhabitants, more than 40 percent of voters have AfD-affiliated politics, which further complicates the city's political landscape.

Queck calls for a fair distribution of funds in order to create equal living conditions, because the current practice of allocating funding is anything but easy to understand. There are more than 40 building supervisory authorities in Saxony, each with their own software, which increases the administrative effort. In addition, the responsibility for distributing funding is divided between different institutions: the Federal Ministry, the State Directorate and the Saxon Development Bank are just some of the players. Through this distribution, Zwickau could receive around five million euros annually with a municipal share of 60 percent of the 100 billion euros. But Queck is skeptical and explains that this sum is not even enough to finance essential projects such as a new school or a fire station.

The funding landscape

A look at the funding landscape shows that municipalities are heavily dependent on these financial resources. According to an article on Economic service subsidies for municipal investments increased by 60 percent between 2016 and 2021. Nevertheless, the distribution is under political influence. Municipalities and community associations are responsible for almost 60 percent of national construction investments, which illustrates the importance of the funding.

However, the complexity of the funding landscape often causes confusion, especially for financially weak municipalities that often do not have the necessary information. Political connections can significantly influence the allocation of funding and exacerbate already perceived injustices. In Brazil, for example, municipalities whose mayors belong to the ruling party receive an average of 30 percent more funding. Similar trends can be observed in Spain, Italy and Germany, where ties to the ruling party bring a noticeable advantage.

The future of investments

The economic mood in municipalities is bad due to the Corona crisis, according to a study by KfW shows. Budget surpluses are a long way off, inevitable austerity measures are expected to address budget deficits and investment could suffer. The level of investment was already inadequate in 2019 and the nationwide investment backlog is estimated at around 147 billion euros.

A recently approved economic stimulus package aims to give local authorities a hand and support investment projects. Nevertheless, cities like Zwickau still face major challenges when it comes to maintaining a functioning infrastructure while at the same time creating equal living conditions. Mayor Queck advocates for municipalities to be considered individually when distributing funds in order to meet the specific needs of all municipalities.