Mayor and Head of Finance Benjamin Koppe: "After the budget approval is before the budget approval."

In a draft resolution submitted by the Die Linke parliamentary group for today's (29.04.2025) City Council agenda, the Lord Mayor is to be instructed to submit a supplementary budget by the end of the third quarter of 2025. The background to this is the draft of the Thuringian "Act to Strengthen Thuringia's Municipalities in 2025" submitted to the state parliament by the new state government. This is expected to result in one-off additional revenue this year of an estimated 4 million euros and the distribution of 1.1 million euros from the state equalization fund.

Mayor and Head of Finance Benjamin Koppe is surprised by the plan to prepare a supplementary budget:

"A local authority has to draw up supplementary budget bylaws if it has to cope with significant, unplanned additional expenditure or can no longer achieve a balanced budget due to a shortfall in revenue, despite all possible savings. Budget law does not provide for a supplementary budget in the event of improvements and additional income in the budget. Supplements are drawn up when there are significant new or unplanned expenses. Based on our current budget volume, this would currently be 9.4 million euros in 2025. Consequently, 5.1 million euros is also considered insignificant, even if it were additional expenditure and not additional income," says Koppe.

Focus on necessary consolidations for the coming financial years

"After the budget approval is before the budget approval: Meaning, instead of improperly discussing a supplementary budget due to ongoing financial improvements, the unplanned additional revenue can be used in the current budget as usual within the scope of cover eligibility. Or they can improve our planned result, which will still show a deficit. We should sharpen our focus on the consolidation that is still necessary and assumed in the budget and the challenges of the coming financial years. The aim is to avoid new debts and tax increases in the medium-term planning at all costs," comments Koppe on the intention of the draft resolution.

The one-off lump sums and special allocations of 5.1 million euros in 2025 are set against a planning horizon of five years with a current total of 2.4 billion euros in payments. Even in the current year 2025, the financial injection from the state only corresponds to 1.1 percent of the currently planned payments.

The city points out that no further funds can currently be expected in 2026. The funds from the state equalization fund alone were paid out in 2022 and 2023, for example, but not in 2024. Neither the city of Jena nor the Thuringian state parliament have any influence over these funds. It could just as well be that the distribution will not take place again for two or even three years.

In addition, the lump sum for investment promotion is earmarked for a specific purpose and is passed on in full to the two in-house operations KIJ and KSJ. According to the legislative text, the fire department lump sum provided for in the draft law is currently only intended for additional, new measures and therefore cannot be used for consolidation.

"We will be happy to explain the effects of the financial aid in the Finance Committee and explain why it is not necessary to prepare a supplementary budget," offers Benjamin Koppe. In view of the current economic forecasts with their impact on tax revenues, it should be made clear in the committee discussion that the special allocations will provide a little more flexibility in budget implementation.

Withdrawal of consolidation measures contradicts advice from the legal supervisory authority

The city also takes up the criticism of the state administration office in the approval notice mentioned in the press release from the Die Linke parliamentary group.

"The legal supervisory authority warns that the city of Jena must take all measures to ensure its solvency through appropriate liquidity planning. Therefore, the withdrawal of consolidation measures that have already been adopted, such as the savings in local transport and the daycare fee statutes, which are to be adjusted after more than ten years, as suggested in the explanatory memorandum to the draft resolution, would contradict this clear indication from the legal supervisory authority and must therefore be clearly rejected," concludes Mayor Koppe.