Zwickaus Mayor calls for fairer funding for the city

Zwickaus Mayor calls 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 network of young mayors, is campaigning for clear and uniform funding guidelines. In an interview, she emphasizes the need that funds from the special infrastructure assets arrive directly and easily in the city. In Zwickau, the fourth largest city of Saxony with around 90,000 inhabitants, more than 40 percent of voters can have an AfD-savvy policy, which also makes the city's political landscape complicated.

mercury calls for a fair distribution to create equivalent living conditions, because the current practice of granting funding is anything but easy to understand. There are more than 40 building supervisory authorities in Saxony, each with their own software, which drives up the administrative effort. In addition, the responsibility for the distribution of funding between different institutions is divided: Federal Ministry, State Directorate and the Saxon construction bar are just a few of the actors. This distribution could receive around five million euros annually in a municipal share of 60 percent of the 100 billion euros. But Queck is skeptical and explains that this sum is not even sufficient 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 strongly dependent on these financial means. According to an article on Wirtschaftsdienst , the grants for municipal investments have increased by 60 percent between 2016 and 2021. Nevertheless, the distribution is under political influence. The municipalities and municipal associations are responsible for almost 60 percent of the total -state building investments, which illustrates the importance of funding.

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

The future of investments

The economic mood in the municipalities is bad due to the Corona crisis, as a study by the kfw . Household surpluses have moved far away, inevitable austerity measures are expected to compensate for budget deficits and investments could suffer. The investment level was insufficient in 2019 and the nationwide investment deficit is estimated at around 147 billion euros.

A recently decided economic stimulus package aims to help the municipalities and support investment projects. Nevertheless, cities like Zwickau continue to have major challenges when it comes to maintaining a functioning infrastructure and at the same time creating equivalent living conditions. Mayor Queck is committed to a individual consideration of the municipalities in the distribution of funds in order to meet the specific needs of all communities.