Finance – Hanover – Lower Saxony’s debt clock is running backwards for the first time – Economy
Hanover (dpa / lni) – For decades, the debt clock of the Federation of Taxpayers in Lower Saxony has usually only known one direction: up. It is now running backwards for the first time in almost 25 years – at 22 euros per second. In the Corona year 2020, on the other hand, the debt clock was still racing forward by the record value of 278 euros per second.
The reason for the change of direction is that the country with the budget 2022 is scheduled to repay corona debts of 698 million euros without taking out new loans to finance the budget, the taxpayers’ association announced on Tuesday. Its chairman, Bernhard Zentgraf, spoke of a “commendable” change of direction. Between 1997 and 2021 the debt rose from 32 billion euros to almost 70 billion euros.
Finance Minister Reinhold Hilbers (CDU) said it “hurt a lot when the debt clock started running back in March 2020”. In the corona pandemic, however, the state government was forced to provide money in two supplementary budgets. However, they wanted to have a balanced budget as quickly as possible without taking out net borrowing and to start repayments in 2024. “I am therefore very proud that we will be able to achieve this goal this year and thus earlier than previously planned.”
The opposition in the state parliament criticized the renovation backlog and failure to invest in climate protection. Imke Byl, the climate policy spokeswoman for the Greens, fears that “future generations will pay many times over”. The financial and budgetary spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Christian Grascha, spoke of a need for modernization in the country of at least ten billion euros: disagreement between Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD), “who would like to lose the debt brake, and Minister Hilbers, who apart from that the debt brake fails to come up with the result that a lot has been left behind in Lower Saxony “.
Lower Saxony’s DGB boss Mehrdad Payandeh spoke of the discussion of “pure populism”: “It is a shame that the CDU and its finance minister are getting involved in the same slogans of the taxpayers’ association in the new year.” The debt clock is a “smoke candle”, citizens would have none of it. “On the contrary: The big tasks of our time such as climate protection and digitization are saddled with such a policy on our children and the state capital stock is rotting away at the same time because not enough is being invested.” The public investment requirement is at least twelve billion euros.
Payandeh emphasizes: “The population no longer falls for this fairytale hour of financial policy, only the goal is to narrow the government’s room for maneuver.” On the other hand, CDU parliamentary group deputy Ulf Thiele spoke of a responsible budget policy: “At a time when the European Union and the federal government are discussing whether the debt rules could be softened, this is a strong signal for sustainable and generational justice Budget policy. “
Zentgraf warned that approved pandemic debts of around ten billion euros in 2020 and 2021 should be gradually reduced – “with iron budgetary discipline and foregoing fiscal policy benefits”. In July 2020, the state parliament provided an emergency loan of around 8.8 billion euros. With the 2021 budget’s net new loans of around EUR 1.1 billion, the debt clock would actually have exceeded the EUR 70 billion mark. But Hilbers waives unnecessary corona loans of 641 million euros.
“Fiscal rules such as the debt brake bring back financial policy leeway in order to be able to make decisions and act decisively in future crises,” said Zentgraf. Baden-Württemberg, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia also provide for net repayments in the budget year 2022 according to the information. However, the net repayment in Lower Saxony will be suspended again in the coming year. Because no new loans are planned, the debt clock will stand still in 2023 as things stand.
Gerald Heere, budget policy spokesman for the Greens, called for an “urgent update” for the debt clock: “For example, it could show the consequences of the restructuring backlog.” Also “a debt clock for the climate debts of the country due to neglected climate protection is appropriate”. In addition, an update of the debt clock does not belong in the CDU parliamentary group, but in public space: “The state government must ensure this transparency.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 220110-99-658934 / 3