Stadtsteinach city councilors say: “this is blackmail!”
"This is blackmail!" Such clear criticism of the government from the spokespersons of all factions is the exception rather than the rule in the stadtsteinach city council. The displeasure is directed against a condition that is linked to the granting of a new stabilization aid. The city no longer has to adjust its property tax A and B as well as its trade tax to the state average rate, as in previous years, but must charge its burghers and tradesmen ten percent more than the state average. 30000 euros in total for all three types of taxes. The owners of an average home with a garden will pay 6 euros more per year.
It’s not a huge sum, but the burden is rising creepingly from year to year. A development that the council does not want for its municipality.
Two million euros received
The city councilors are not ungrateful. You have received a total of two million euros in stabilization aid from the freistaat uberuberwiesen plus numerous other demands in the past few years. And the city also urgently needs the 200,000 euros that have now been pledged.
The requirement to raise their municipal taxes to at least ten percent above the state average, however, is clearly going too far for them. "This ensures that the national average is driven ever higher", criticizes klaus witzgall (CSU). "There is nothing left for us to do, but the way this is being handled is not right."
He is "appalled, said martin baumgartner (): "this is a clear surveillance of the rural area, pure willkur, which contradicts the agreements recently reached in the coalition agreement in the state parliament."
Wolfgang hoderlein spoke of a serious encroachment on local self-government: "the state prescribes tasks that we must fulfill, and at the same time encroaches on our financial sovereignty. We have no freedom of choice."
The tax increase was nevertheless decided by necessity. Knud espig (SPD) was very disappointed: "we can’t afford to say no and do without state aid."
