Home » Business » The Swiss Rheinfelden plans cautiously for 2021 – Rheinfelden / Switzerland

The Swiss Rheinfelden plans cautiously for 2021 – Rheinfelden / Switzerland

Despite the expected lower income and higher social spending due to the corona, the financial basis is still reassuring.

The city of Rheinfelden / Switzerland is doing very well financially. The municipality has no net debt. On the contrary – the municipality has a large balance of around 68 million francs. Nevertheless, the tax rate – as the coefficient set by municipalities for tax collection in Switzerland is called – should remain unchanged at 95 percent in the coming year. This will be requested by the city council in the upcoming community meeting on December 9th. “Also in view of the great uncertainty about the consequences of the pandemic on the finances, we want to leave the tax rate unchanged in the coming year,” said mayor Franco Mazzi on the occasion of a media briefing.

The city is planning to reduce the tax rate to 90 percent in 2022. “Without the pandemic, a reduction might have been an issue for 2021,” said Mazzi. In the current situation, the city is proceeding cautiously: “The budgeting process for 2021 was characterized by an unusual complexity,” said Mazzi. The city officials had to estimate what financial impact the pandemic could have on the city budget. The city is therefore budgeting lower income from corporate income and capital taxes and higher spending on social welfare.

Specifically, the 2021 budget provides for a surplus of expenses of 500,000 francs. The budgeted investments amount to a net 16 million francs, which, assuming self-financing of 5.4 million francs, results in a financing shortfall of 10.6 million francs. 8.2 million francs alone are to flow into the Engerfeld school complex in 2021, where, in addition to renovation, the construction of a new triple gym is planned.

In the coming years, too, there will be major issues, as was made clear in the media orientation. A total investment volume of 81.3 million francs is planned for the years 2021 to 2025. Assuming self-financing of CHF 32 million in this period would result in a financing shortfall of CHF 49.3 million. This would mean that the net assets would be reduced to around 17.5 million francs. But that would still be a good financial cushion.

The Rhine footbridge, which was not built, was also an issue during the media orientation. It became clear that it still cost a lot. At the community meeting on tomorrow, Wednesday, the final line will be drawn under the entire “Rheinsteg” project, which has occupied the two Rheinfelden for many years.

As a reminder: the two cities planned to build a new pedestrian and cyclist bridge over the Rhine at the level of the Swiss raft country trail. In 2016, the community assembly in Rheinfelden / Switzerland approved a loan of 3.73 million francs for this. After the submitted offers from construction companies clearly exceeded the cost calculations of the engineering office, an additional loan was needed. The community assembly approved these additional costs in June 2019. Against this, however, the referendum was called. In the ballot box in October 2019, the citizens rejected the loan and sank the project. This means that there was nothing except expenses.

Specifically, the planning and projecting of the transition, which will never be implemented, cost a total of 1.12 million francs. This is evident from the credit statement that the city council will submit to the community assembly.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.