Lord Mayor Sven Schulze and Treasurer Ralph Burghart have expressed their disappointment with the results of the City Council's budget meeting:
"We view the outcome of the budget deliberations as critical. Although a budget statute was adopted, we believe that far too few valuable consolidation measures were approved by a majority. We will now present the result to the regional authorities. In all likelihood, however, the measures adopted will not be sufficient for the budget to be approved. It is therefore to be feared that we will have to deal with consolidation measures again in a few weeks' time. This will not make the task any easier - on the contrary. The current decision therefore means a standstill for the time being. It means further uncertainty for clubs, for organisations, for companies and for all those who depend on a city that is able to act. This is the responsibility of the city council, which in our view has also failed to come up with its own constructive proposals for cost-saving measures in recent months."