In 2024, Offenbach had to raise twelve million euros more for child and youth welfare services alone compared to the previous year. Above all, these and other sharply increased social costs have led to the forecast deficit in Offenbach rising by 9.4 million euros to up to 47.6 million euros. Since tax revenue was lower than planned, a supplementary budget was unavoidable. The fact that the financial situation of Offenbach and other municipalities in Hesse and beyond is becoming crisis-like is primarily due to expenses that the federal and state governments impose on municipalities by law. For this reason, the Offenbach treasurer Martin Wilhelm (SPD) and representatives of the alliance “For the Dignity of Our Cities”, in which 71 municipalities from eight federal states cooperate, have now presented their demands to the SPD-led Hessian Ministry of Economic Affairs. In principle, the municipalities demand financial resources , which enables them to cope with the “almost exploding” social spending of cities and municipalities, such as the aforementioned “educational aid” and integration assistance, without having to resort to cash loans in order to fulfill the mandatory tasks. The cash loans correspond to the delicate, because particularly expensive, overdrafts of a private checking account.Growing cities with young residents should be given special consideration. The state of Hesse years ago launched a debt relief program for the municipalities with the Hessenkasse, which inevitably made such cash loans a permanent source of financing for budget deficits , instead of using regular investment loans to finance material assets such as school buildings and new roads. Offenbach also took advantage of this offer in 2018. However, this did not result in long-term adequate financial resources for the municipalities. Wilhelm and other representatives of the city alliance are therefore calling on the federal and state governments to ensure the financing of social spending in accordance with the principle “whoever orders, pays”. “It is an urgent concern to me that the cities and municipalities are adequately financially equipped for the tasks they receive from the federal and state governments,” says Wilhelm. From 2026 onwards, new rules for municipal financial equalization (KFA) are to be introduced in Hesse. apply. With a view to the current discussions, the municipal alliance primarily wants to ensure that the funds from the financial equalization are actually distributed in accordance with the increase in expenditure and costs in the individual municipalities. Specifically, growing cities with many young residents should be given special consideration when calculating the KFA share. Offenbach belongs to this group of cities. Further discussions in Wiesbaden are to follow. The municipalities are also urging the federal government to solve the problem of old municipal debts. This has not yet been resolved with the Hessenkasse because it was only a matter of taking over the cash loans. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced that Finance Minister Jörg Kukies (both SPD) will introduce a corresponding bill before the federal election on February 23rd. However, the regulation in Berlin is still pending.More on the topicThe municipal action alliance is promoting that the parliamentary groups in the Bundestag, regardless of the election campaign, jointly implement such a regulation in order to alleviate the municipal financial crisis, as the alliance further states in a statement.In the During discussions in Wiesbachen, local representatives appealed to promote the federal government’s old debt solution in Berlin across party lines. Further discussions are to follow in Wiesbaden in the middle of the month.
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