With the singer James Blunt, a real world star is coming to Krems in 2024. The entrepreneur Othmar Seidl, who is successful throughout Austria, managed to get the star to appear at the Steiner Tor festival. Apparently, it is the city that wants to profit from Seidl’s coup.
As reported, Seidl has already paid 33,000 euros in entertainment tax for this year’s festival. 15 percent of ticket sales went into the city coffers. More money than would have flowed into most other cities. And too much for Seidl, who then toyed with the idea of holding the festival elsewhere. Written together with Erwin Goldfuß (Wachauer Volksfest), Peter Hauswirth (operator Cinemaplexx) and Benjamin Aigner-Seidl as well as Lukas Aigner, the two operators of the event days At the end of June, Seidl sent a letter to Krems city politicians calling for the amusement tax to be abolished or reduced. And apparently with success. In July, the city leadership signaled its willingness to turn the “tax screw”. As reported, the ÖVP even presented a proposal that envisaged a staggered reduction – and, according to Seidl, it was approved not only by him, but also by the city leadership. But almost nothing has happened since then. Almost – because our own working group has already met at least once. According to the magistrate, a second meeting will now follow “in a timely manner.” “Political decision” announced “Deliberations are underway. We cannot and must not anticipate possible results through media reports. The result will be based on a political decision,” explains Hannes Zimmermann from the town hall. For the ÖVP this is just lip service. “Winning a ball should benefit the high school students and not improve the city budget,” says Vice Mayor Florian Kamleitner, repeating his call for an exemption from the entertainment tax for schools.
source site-12