Erfurt (dpa/th) – Pointless renovation, expensive thank you party and oversized state parliament: The taxpayers’ association in Thuringia has denounced cases of wasting money in its black book. In Georgenthal (Gotha district), for example, an almost 1.8-kilometer-long forest path was renovated for 380,000 euros, on which there are hardly any residents, the taxpayers’ association announced on Wednesday. Even the local people did not understand the measure.
In the face of a 200,000-euro “Thank you for vaccination” party from the Thuringian Ministry of Health, the taxpayers’ association wondered whether the money would have been better invested there in view of the continuing grievances in the health sector.
In addition, the taxpayers’ association has criticized the large number of deputies in the Thuringian state parliament. The electoral law must be reformed as quickly as possible and the number of constituencies reduced to such an extent that the state parliament will have at least 20 fewer MPs in the future, it said.
In relation to the number of inhabitants, Thuringia affords an above-average number of MPs. There are around 90 parliamentarians for every two million inhabitants. That means a ratio of one MP to around 23,500 inhabitants. The nationwide average of all non-city states is therefore 50,267 inhabitants.
With a moderate reduction of 20 MPs each time, there would still be a far above-average and generous endowment. In this way, around 9.4 million euros could be saved during a five-year legislative period.
