Municipalities are entering a financially uncertain time. They will receive less money from the government from 2026. The Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) is talking about it today during the conference in Groningen.
Secretary and treasurer of VNG is the mayor of Emmen, Eric van Oosterhout. He hopes that the cabinet will realize that after 2026 the municipalities will also need money for the long term. They themselves speak of the ‘ravine year 2026’, because after that they are shortened so much that it seems as if they are falling into a ravine.
“We still have enough money for the next two years, but after that we will be cut,” says Van Oosterhout. “All 342 municipalities together are about 3 billion euros short.” Despite the fact that municipalities currently have money left over.
According to the mayor, it can be compared to a household where there is enough money to buy another car, but it is not possible to buy a house. “We cannot plan anything for the long term. We want to do more with sports fields in Emmen, for example, so we can purchase a new field, but we cannot afford the construction of a new sports hall.”
He hopes that municipalities can put pressure on the cabinet to give more money to the municipalities after 2025. “We can’t go onto the Malieveld with tractors,” says Van Oosterhout. “But we now do so much for the government, such as the asylum shelter youth care, maybe we should temporarily do that less.”
According to Van Oosterhout, the relationship between the VNG and the government has cooled somewhat at the moment. “The government must realize that we are not asking strange things,” said the treasurer of the VNG. “They don’t just give us money.”