Financially, it is all hands on deck in Assen. The municipality will face million-dollar deficits in the coming years if the city council does not significantly reduce expenditure.
Last year the city was almost 5 million euros short. Next year there is a risk of a hole in the household budget of 6.7 million euros and that will increase to almost 16 million in 2029.
The annual accounts for 2025 with a deficit of 4.9 million are a nasty setback. An increase of over 4 million euros was expected. But the costs for youth care and Wmo in particular, including domestic help, are out of line.
Assen spends many millions more on this than it receives reimbursement from the government. The city is short of 8 million euros on these healthcare costs. This is due to a higher demand for help, in combination with higher rates, and Assen does not expect any improvement in this.
The poor financial outlook for the next four years therefore casts a shadow over the ongoing coalition discussions between Assen Centraal, Pro Assen, ChristenUnie and VVD. There is no money for ambitious plans.
There really needs to be a lot of scrapping. The new coalition will present the administrative agreement on Monday, in which it will announce what is planned for the next four years.
Earlier this year, the necessary preparatory work was done at City Hall, looking at savings. Because the significant shortages did not come out of the blue. These were also an important reason why a new open-air swimming pool was canceled.
A package of possible austerity measures has been drawn up within the official organization, together worth 23 million euros. Then 8 million savings can also be made on the official organization. So good for 31 million.
The question remains whether it will come to that. Also what exactly will be cut. That choice is up to the new municipal executive and ultimately the Asser municipal council. But cuts are desperately needed.
Assen has again invested a lot of money in new plans this year, a total of 48 million. Too much, as a first overview shows. Because according to the budget, 444 million euros will be received this year – three-quarters of which will come from the government – but 447 million euros have been spent. So a deficit of millions in the final bill for this year is also certain.
Major investments in the pipeline include environmental parks, town hall, sports campus and educational buildings. In fact, investments worth 80 million are planned for 2027, almost doubling this year.
But at the same time, a deficit of 6.7 million looms for next year. And without intervention, that will increase to 15.6 million in 2028, and even to 15.8 million in 2029.