Since March, Thuringia and the federal government have been pumping hundreds of millions of euros into industry and trade, the service sector, but also into culture, the social sector, health care, municipalities, sports and education. The money is intended to cushion the consequences of the corona pandemic. In the economy alone, the range of funding ranges from emergency aid to loans and guarantees. All current developments in the free Corona live blog.
In June, the Thuringian state parliament decided on the Corona special fund, a separate part of the budget in which the funds that the state government would like to use to cope with the corona pandemic are pooled. According to the Ministry of Finance, this pot comprised 1.26 billion euros at the end of September. Of this, 873 million euros had already been spent and therefore around 400,000 euros still available.
In the meantime, the State Audit Office speaks of a total volume of the Corona special assets of 1.455 billion euros. Almost 700 million euros come from the state, a little more than 600 million from the federal government. A further 155 million euros have flowed into the special fund from third parties, for example from the health insurance companies. Thuringia is also planning to launch its own economic stimulus program for a further 300 million euros.
As early as March of this year, the federal government and then also the state provided the first financial support to deal with the consequences of the corona with the Corona emergency aid.
Emergency aid
According to figures from the Thuringian Aufbaubank for this were:
a total of 320 million euros approved
71,000 applications submitted by the end of May
2500 applications processed per day
almost 17,500 applications rejected, for example because they were incomplete or submitted twice
With 305 million euros, the bulk of the sum went to more than 49,000 companies in the Free State, but also to non-profit associations. The service industry and farmers in particular received emergency aid in the first half of the year. The program ended in summer. Thuringia contributed around one sixth of the aid amount with 56 million euros.
In the meantime, around seven million euros of unused emergency aid has been repaid to the Aufbaubank.
Bridging aids:
In addition, bridging aid is granted to help endangered companies, but also cultural workers or self-employed people. Phase I of the bridging aid ran from June to August of this year.
According to the Thürjnger Aufbaubank, in the Free State:
Almost 3400 applications have been submitted and 2712 have been approved so far
622 applications rejected
Almost 22.7 million euros paid out
The following were approved for Bridging Aid I:
in the construction industry 574,000 euros
for self-employed people a total of five million euros
for non-profit associations a total of 618,000 euros
around two million euros for artists and cultural workers as well as amusement and theme parks
for agriculture and forestry a total of 54,000 euros
for social institutions just under 40,000 euros
In the meantime, the federal government has issued another bridging aid. Phase II covers the months from September to December and phase III has already been announced from January.
Thuringia also wants to provide additional financial support to those particularly affected by the partial lock-down in November and probably also in December with “November aid”. The Thüringer Aufbaubank also granted the corona aid loans it developed for companies in 255 cases. A total of 14 million euros were approved for this.
Corona special fund
The planned corona-related expenses from the Thuringian special fund comprised a total of 58 broad items, according to a list by the Ministry of Finance from the end of September. Among others, the following are mentioned:
19 million euros for monitoring and coping with the corona infection in Thuringia
111 million euros for the purchase of consumables and equipment for pandemic preparedness
5 million euros to purchase vaccines and antiviral drugs
185 million euros as a trade tax stabilization allocation to municipalities and districts
31 million euros to compensate for missing parental contributions during the closure of publicly funded day-care centers
13 million euros in allocations to the municipalities for preventive measures against the corona virus in refugee accommodations
34.6 million euros for compensation payments under the Infection Protection Act
30 million euros for the family bonus
41 million euros to compensate for a lack of income from local public transport
7.5 million euros to support the maintenance of apprenticeship positions and when taking on trainees from closed companies
16 million euros in emergency aid for non-profit organizations
4.4 million euros in grants for museums to compensate for loss of income
9 million euros in grants for theater and orchestra to compensate for loss of income
14 million euros for digital devices for socially disadvantaged students
50 million euros to create intensive care treatment capacities
Some of the funds mentioned here had only been partially spent or not at all by the end of September.
When drawing up the Corona special fund in May, the State Audit Office criticized the fact that the calculations for some of the output titles and, in individual cases, their necessity were not comprehensible.
“The Court of Auditors therefore advocates that unused edition titles be deleted from the special fund,” says a spokesman for this newspaper. However, they could also be used for any programs due to the new lockdown phase. The financial controllers are against a “reserve of funds for future financial years”.
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