Mayor of Schwerin imposes budget freeze
Schwerin's Lord Mayor Rico Badenschier has imposed a budget freeze due to a million-euro hole in the state capital's 2024 budget. It applies "with immediate effect with regard to the budgetary authorizations for 2024", the SPD politician announced on Monday. "Payments may only be made in accordance with the strict rules of provisional budget management."
The reason for this is a forecast by the financial administration, which assumes that the city's budget situation will deteriorate by a total of 27 million euros compared to previous planning - due to increased interest rates for loans and wage increases, among other things.
There is currently no cover for at least eight million euros in the 2024 budget, making the budget freeze unavoidable, it said. According to the information provided, it will remain in place until the necessary savings have been made.
"To this end, the city's specialist departments and in-house operations are being asked to compile savings proposals amounting to at least these eight million euros," explained Silvio Horn, Head of Finance. These would then be incorporated into a supplementary budget, which is expected to be presented to the city council in the first quarter of next year and will then have to be approved by the Ministry of the Interior.
In the meantime, the administration would only have very limited access to the funds due to the budget freeze. Subsidies and grants to associations and clubs are therefore only possible to a limited extent, said Horn. "Payments for all mandatory tasks, in particular all social services, will continue to be made even during the provisional budget management," he promised.
The budget freeze imposed by Mayor Badenschier affects various municipal budgetary authorizations for 2024, including household expenses. The financial administration's forecast reveals that Schwerin's municipalities may face a budget shortfall of up to 27 million euros, requiring strict financial measures.
Source: www.dpa.com
