HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) – The advocates of a first state model experiment to introduce an unconditional basic income in Hamburg are in danger of failing. After counting almost 400 of 673 voting areas, the ratio of supporters to opponents in the referendum “Hamburg tests basic income” is around one third to two thirds, as the North Statistics Office announced.
The supporters are also still a long way from the necessary minimum quorum of 262,609 votes. According to the information, voter turnout in the referendum on a basic income and the parallel referendum on stricter climate protection was 43.6 percent.
City should pay basic income to 2,000 people in Hamburg
In the first state model experiment, the initiators want to provide 2,000 representatively selected Hamburg residents with a basic income for three years. This year this would have been 1,346 euros per month plus health insurance. However, your own income would be taken into account.
If the model test were to begin in 2027, the city would incur costs of around 50 million euros, according to the initiative’s calculations.
The initiative would like to use a scientific method to find out whether the basic income can work. Before the vote, professor emeritus of economics and founding director of the Hamburg World Economic Institute, Prof. Thomas Straubhaar, was convinced that the Hamburg model experiment would offer the opportunity “to learn how a basic income must be designed in order to meet the expectations – including of future generations – of a fair, affordable and strong welfare state.”
Almost all parliamentary groups are against the model experiment
But there is also considerable criticism. Apart from the left, all parliamentary groups are against the basic income. The SPD and the Greens consider the model to be too expensive and it does not provide any scientific added value because there have already been model tests elsewhere.
In addition, the basic income is not unconditional because income is taken into account. For the CDU, the referendum puts “an expensive, half-baked project up for vote that raises more questions than it answers.”
The employee-oriented Hans Böckler Foundation is also skeptical
But the employee-oriented Hans Böckler Foundation also advised against a tax-financed basic income. Among other things, their researchers saw the danger of a Trojan horse in that the costs could serve as an argument for canceling all transfer payments, including pensions.
The basic income would also have a significant impact on the wage structure, as it would completely relieve employers of the obligation to pay living wages, they argued. The end result would be a “super combination wage with a high state share and a low employer share”. From the perspective of the foundation researchers, it would make more sense to promote training, starting a family or starting a business through more generous transfers.
This is the second attempt by the initiative to introduce a model experiment. At the beginning of 2020, the initiators had already collected the necessary number of 10,000 valid signatures. However, a subsequent planned referendum was stopped by the Hamburg Constitutional Court in the summer of 2023 at the request of the red-green Senate. The initiators then revised their draft law and started the new initiative.
The referendum should take place parallel to the federal election
The initiators of “Hamburg tests basic income” actually wanted to hold the vote together with the federal election originally planned for September. But due to the early end of the traffic light government in Berlin, this election was brought forward to February, so that the referendum was now held without a “real” election./klm/DP/zb