The Märkisch-Oderland district council has approved the 2025 district budget by a majority. It has a volume of €532 million. However, it will only become legally binding once it has been approved by the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government. This approval is necessary as the budget contains commitment appropriations and borrowing for investment loans for the coming year. The district budget shows a deficit in both the income budget and the financial budget. The deficit in the income budget amounts to € 31.2 million. It can be covered from the reserves in 2025.
At the district council meeting, the alderman and treasurer Rainer Schinkel referred to the difficult conditions under which the budget was drawn up:
"Germany is in a recession. The district has few opportunities to increase its own income. We are dependent on state grants. These are nowhere near enough to fully finance the legally standardized expenditure. Steadily rising expenditure in the youth and social sectors is bringing many municipalities and districts in Brandenburg and throughout Germany to the brink of insolvency. In 2025, €177 million will have to be made available for the youth sector and €113 million in particular for the financing of child daycare. The social budget is estimated at €166 million, €20 million more than in 2024.
Thanks to the solid budget management of recent years, we still have reserves that we can now use to ensure that the budget is balanced. These reserves will be used up quickly.
The rate of the district levy will be 43.0 per hundred. Although we have not formally received any objections from our municipalities, we know that no municipality can easily absorb this increase. We assume that we have weighed up our financial situation equally and fairly with that of the municipalities. At this point, the state government and the Brandenburg state parliament are still required to ensure that the municipalities have adequate financial resources, and unfortunately this has not yet been the case."
The district will have little scope for additional expenditure in the coming years and will also have to reduce funding for individual services in some places, unless it is relieved of statutory services and can simultaneously generate more tax revenue through economic growth. At the same time, the district must do everything in its power to secure the investments that have already been made in school construction (Altlandsberg special school and Gymnasium II in Strausberg), including the construction of the new FTZ and in other areas such as road construction or digitalization projects. This will probably only be possible with loans. When implementing the budget, the district will also have to use every opportunity to minimize expenditure to achieve this goal.