At the beginning of his budget speech on Tuesday, Stelzer spoke of a painful division in society and politics, and he warned: “As citizens in our democratic society, we have many rights, many opportunities, many opportunities and many freedoms. But we also have duties so that the community works and so that your and my freedom is really secured. “
With the vaccination you have the exit ticket from the crisis, but Upper Austria has only jumped on this train with one foot, so Stelzer. Combating the consequences of the pandemic is a priority in the budget. The focus of the state budget is also: “Security, growth and employment as the main pillars.”
“Lowest new debt in all of Austria”
Not incurring new debts was only interrupted by the coronavirus crisis, but not canceled, so Stelzer and he referred to a new debt for 2022, which, according to him, is the lowest in all of Austria. Overall, the state budget is expected to increase by around 1.6 percent – some areas are doing this much more, such as spending on childcare, social or health budgets. Climate protection must be seen across all departments, said Stelzer, but also made it clear straight away that roads would remain the country’s axes of prosperity in the future.
More money demanded from financial equalization
Last but not least, Stelzer calculated that Upper Austria generated a large part of the federal government’s tax revenue – more money would have to flow back in a new financial equalization, demanded the governor: “We have the common challenge that the money we have available, is there for areas that are growing dynamically. For care, for health, there are no political decisions behind it that more money is needed. ”ÖVP and FPÖ will decide on the budget, all others reject it for the first time.
NEOS:
The NEOS criticize that the budget would be missing so much. Club chairman Felix Eypeltauer attested the governor’s efforts to budget discipline, but nothing more. He missed investments in education and for the climate.