Finances - Debt brake: reform commission called for
Baden-Württemberg's Finance Minister Daniel Bayaz (Greens) and Berlin's Finance Senator Stefan Evers (CDU) have called for a reform commission for the debt brake. This should be made up of representatives from the federal and state governments and academia in order to further develop the debt brake, write the two politicians in a guest article published in the "Tagesspiegel".
The two state politicians consider an investment rule as part of the debt brake to be a conceivable part of a possible reform. "This would enable the credit financing of additional investments, for example with a view to the challenges of transformation," they say in the guest article. "A new exception to the debt rule must not lead to new leeway being created for consumptive or non-targeted expenditure by politically charging the concept of investment."
The federal states also need more scope for debt. "A debt level for the federal states of 0.15 percent of their GDP, for example, would open up leeway that could be used for the most important federal state policy issue of education," write the two politicians. They believe that emergency loans should also be able to be used beyond the year in which the emergency begins.
The debt brake is being criticized following the budget chaos at federal level. There is talk among the federal states of launching a reform initiative in the Bundesrat, as Berlin's governing mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) said on RBB-Inforadio.
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Source: www.stern.de
