Mayor introduces draft plan for first two-year municipal budget

Yesterday, Lord Mayor Barbara Ludwig presented the draft plan for the first two-year city budget - for 2017/18 - to the City Council and introduced the key points.

Lord Mayor Barbara Ludwig: "With this draft, we are formulating long-term goals and strategies to make Chemnitz a city of cultural and scientific innovation, intergenerational justice, quality of life with a focus on the younger generation, a city with social cohesion and a home in a globalised world."

The negative forecasts of the past regarding Chemnitz have been refuted by population trends and the new population forecast that has recently become available. "The prospects for our city are different and the efforts of recent years have paid off. We have not accepted the negative population forecasts of the State Statistical Office as a foregone conclusion. Thanks to their hard work, creativity and willingness to develop the city, the people of Chemnitz have played a major role in the fact that a turnaround seems to have been achieved. However, the most important thing is that we continue to work on it," said the Lord Mayor.

Next year will see the start of an investment programme worth almost 271.5 million euros that will run until 2021. In 2017 alone, it comprises around 65 million euros, and 77.5 million euros in the following year. The Saxon Investment Strengthening Act is the main focus here: the Walter-Ranft-Straße daycare centre, the "Ernst Busch" speech therapy school and the platform tunnel at the main railway station are examples of measures from the federal budget that are to be completed by 2018. The following projects, among others, will be started from the Free State budget: the construction of a new secondary school at Hartmannplatz (€20 million), a building at the opera house in the city centre (€12 million), the construction of a new swimming complex (€13.1 million) and the construction of a new daycare centre in the city centre (€5 million).

There are also other areas in which the city will be investing over the next two years: As in previous years, the focus will remain on further investment in the modernisation of schools and daycare centres. In addition, the focus will be on sport with €10.4 million in 2017 and €17.7 million in 2018. The construction of a new technical fire service centre and various civil engineering measures such as Gablenzplatz, the Küchwald stop and the linking of long-distance and regional bus services with the main railway station and Chemnitz model are also on the agenda.

"Chemnitz needs long-term strategic goals. A bid to become Capital of Culture 2025 is the right platform for this," continued Lord Mayor Barbara Ludwig. A bid for the title of "European Capital of Culture 2025" is a sustainable development process for the city as a whole. This would benefit the city's guests, but first and foremost the people of Chemnitz and Chemnitz companies. In terms of infrastructure, Chemnitz is already tackling projects that will be worthy of a European Capital of Culture.

In addition to these investments in the future, debt reduction is also to be continued in order to avoid burdening future generations with further debt. This will be achieved in the coming year through a special repayment, which makes sense given the current situation on the credit markets.

With the two-year budget, the administration and city council expect a reduction in the administrative effort involved in drawing up the budget and two to three months more room for manoeuvre in 2018, as the approval process by the state directorate is no longer necessary in the second year.

The decision-making meeting is scheduled for 8 February 2017.

Draft of the 2017/2018 biennial budget for the City of Chemnitz