The budget debate in the Vorarlberg state parliament on Wednesday morning developed into an exchange of blows between FPÖ leader Christof Bitschi and Green Party leader Eva Hammerer.
There is currently a lot of crying and gnashing of teeth in Vorarlberg’s municipal halls when it comes to drawing up the 2024 budget. Given a deficit of 160 million euros, the state’s estimates do not look much better than those of the municipalities. The country’s current debt level is around 450 million euros. State Governor Markus Wallner nevertheless tried to exude confidence. “We don’t need to complain about the crisis, we need to focus on our strengths. Vorarlberg has the chance to get through the crisis well if the course is set correctly.” In order to do this, he has, among other things, scheduled a meeting with the social partners at the beginning of the year. Wallner wants to use them to consider how the impending increase in unemployment can be avoided. “You cannot build the House of Vorarlberg on debt,” said the country’s top finance chief. Budget requests of almost 200 million euros were not taken into account. However, there is little evidence of a tightening of the belt in the estimate; after all, 250 million euros more are being spent compared to the previous year. And, as Garry Thür from NEOS noted, some items are not even taken into account. Personnel costs and electricity discounts not in the plan Due to the high salaries of state employees alone, additional costs of 20 million euros must be expected. The bottom line is that he calculates that between 50 and 60 additional million will have to be shelled out. “We don’t have an income problem, we have an expenditure problem,” he clarified. For example, the pink mandatary cannot understand at all that the electricity discount, distributed according to the watering can principle, which will cost 16.6 million euros next year, has been extended. Wallner also had to listen to criticism from Manuela Auer (SPÖ). She suspected that the savings fund had not been set aside due to the upcoming elections. She also saw a lot of room for improvement when it comes to immigration. “We have waiting times of four months for the German courses, so do your homework!” While Thür and Auer were still trying to provide constructive criticism, Bitschi’s budget speech was more reminiscent of an election campaign kick-off in the beer tent. “There is hope for many people in Vorarlberg, because this is probably the last black-green budget,” he rumbled right at the beginning. He didn’t say anything good about the black-green projects. A lot of things have gotten worse. “The ÖVP has allowed itself to be infected by the Greens’ politics, a politics of burdens and bans,” he shot sharply at the Greens. Their CO2 tax contributed massively to inflation rising even higher. Eva Hammerer (Greens) first sang the praises of her own government projects and then vented her anger at Bitschi’s words. “They stir up fears and envy, talk about an S18 that no one wants, cling to old things and don’t look to the future.” The answer to too much traffic is not more roads, but the expansion of public transport. The answer to the energy crisis is clean energy from wind and water. A third point was lost in the general tumult…
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