Issued Tuesday, May 2, 2023
Innsbruck (OTS) – Governor and finance officer Anton Mattle puts the brakes on the debt. That is commendable, but only the first part of the exercise if he wants to make the budget “suitable for grandchildren” again. The same will not work without savings packages and will take years.
It’s a term that seemed to have been erased from the vocabulary of all those responsible for finance at federal and state level: debt brake. Instead, the XXL financial watering can was pulled out of the corner to combat the multiple crises from Corona to energy and inflation. “Cost what it may” – a credo that not only led to overfunding, but also to exploding budget deficits. Tyrol’s governor Anton Mattle (VP) has now declared the debt brake to be a budget principle again. Mattle shies away from the prospect of new austerity packages – for the time being.
At the end of 2022, the country’s pure financial debt was 842 million euros. In 2019, i.e. before the crises, it was 197 million euros. The “public debt” (including all non-budgetary units that can be assigned to the state) was even €958 (or €254) million. Mattle now wants to flexibly step on the brakes – from 2024 the level of debt should level off at a maximum of 25 percent of the budgeted income. Tyrol is scratching the one billion mark. A brake that can stop further debt accumulation, but does not have to per se. It always has a dampening effect. The fact that Mattle is again giving the state budget a medium-term framework is a first step. One that the state audit office had only warned about in November 2022. At a time when the new VP/SP coalition saw no reason for an early cash collapse in 2023. At the time, nobody wanted to know about a financial blind flight in view of the many aid packages.
debt brake? Yes. But Mattle should actually have a different motto for the rest of the black and red reign: debt reduction. How else does Mattle want to reorganize the state finances “suitable for grandchildren”? On average, Tyrol has repaid debts of around €62 million per year since 2017. Will Mattle to the 2019 level – it would take him more than ten years. Mattle and LHStv. Georg Dornauer (SP) therefore cannot press in the long run. Mattle’s debt brake is just a start, the little brother of new austerity packages, so to speak. The extent to which possible austerity measures turn out will also depend on the ongoing financial equalization negotiations with the federal government. The federal states are thirsting for compensation for the costs that the federal government has successively shouldered over their shoulders in recent years. Especially in the health sector. In addition, optional sweets want to be financed. Key word: legal entitlement to childcare. Cutbacks will be necessary. Where? That will also say a lot about how far social attitudes in the black-red government actually are.
Questions & contact:
Tiroler Tageszeitung
0512 5354 5101
editor-in-chief@tt.com
