The new finance senator Daniel Wesener (46, Greens) sees his budget draft for 2022/23 soberly: “You will not see a finance senator who is braided with flower garlands.”
Yesterday he got the green light from the Senate, but the opposition does not hold back with criticism: “The renovation backlog in the infrastructure must be reduced even more,” according to the FDP. Or the CDU: “Many important projects did not receive adequate funding by the end of June.” Parliament only pours the many figures into law after many deliberations.
► Remarkable: As early as next year, Wesener wants to repay 810 million euros of the corona emergency loans taken out in 2020 (7.3 billion euros) instead of just 270 million euros in one fell swoop. Even the President of the Court of Auditors welcomes this.
► After two years of the Corona crisis, Berlin’s spending will shrink to 36.4 (2022) and 35.7 (2023) billion euros (previously more than 40 billion). Expenditure on education (1.4 billion for school construction alone), personnel (+ 3777 jobs primarily for teachers and police officers, tax officials), public transport (1.2 billion/year) will nevertheless increase significantly. In addition, the construction of 5,000 social housing units is to be promoted each year.
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Nevertheless, Corona is still having an effect: Berlin’s state companies receive 721 million euros to compensate for losses. In addition, 1.18 billion euros flow to the companies via loans.
“The Senate declares a capital injection as an investment in order to conceal their financial difficulties,” criticizes Sibylle Meister (58, FDP).