Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) – In the proceedings regarding the Hessian home levy, the State Court of Justice rejected the complaints from municipalities. The regulations intervened in the municipal self-government law, but within the framework of the legal requirements, said the Vice President at the State Court of Justice, Ute Sacksofsky, on Wednesday in Wiesbaden.
The municipality of Biebergemünd and the cities of Büdingen, Schwalbach am Taunus, Stadtallendorf and Frankfurt saw their constitutionally guaranteed right to municipal self-government violated by the Hessian law on the “Strong Homeland Hesse” program.
The homeland levy has existed in Hesse since 2020. It is used to finance the “Strong Homeland Hesse” program. After the increased trade tax allocation expired at the end of 2019, the municipalities have an additional 300 million euros available per year with the municipal financial equalization program. The municipalities had demanded that they be entitled to these funds without any earmarking.
On the one hand, however, the funds from the home allocation are earmarked and are used, for example, to strengthen childcare and for administrative staff in schools as well as for digitization and the hospitals in the municipalities. On the other hand, the proceeds are used to increase the key mass in municipal financial equalization.