Shortly before the end of the year, the black-green North Rhine-Westphalia government wants to launch crisis aid worth billions. For this purpose, the state parliament should also decide on a debt-financed “special fund”. The opposition suspects that the government also wants to use it to finance its own desired projects.
Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – After several U-turns, the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament wants to launch a 1.6 billion euro aid package to cushion the economic consequences of the Ukraine war on Tuesday (11 a.m.). The funds are the first tranche of a debt-financed “special fund for crisis management”, which the state parliament will only vote on in a special session on Wednesday. The special fund is estimated to have credit authorizations of up to five billion euros.
Actually, the state parliament should meet this Tuesday for its last session of the year and approve all financial plans. But then the AfD parliamentary group applied for a third reading of the law on the special fund with its minority rights. This vote – probably without a debate – can only take place one day later.
On Tuesday, the state parliament will also decide on the 2023 budget. The coalition of the CDU and the Greens withdrew an initially planned supplementary budget for 2022 at the last minute on Monday. Finance Minister Marcus Optendrenk unexpectedly cited additional tax revenue of EUR 1.2 to 1.3 billion as a result of tax prepayments in mid-December as the reason for the waiver. This also eliminates the legal basis for determining an “extraordinary emergency situation” for 2022, which would allow borrowing beyond the limit of the debt brake.
Minister Optendrenk had said that the state financial emergency would be declared for the coming year 2023 due to the poor economic forecasts and tax estimates. The SPD, FDP and AfD opposition spoke of “chaos” and “fiasco” in the budget process and questioned the constitutionality.
The path to the billions in rescue package put together by the black-green state government had been bumpy and hotly disputed for weeks. After massive criticism from the state audit office, the black-green NRW coalition, which has been in office since the summer, had to change its budget twice. The state parliament is now to decide on measures to be paid for from the special fund. The opposition SPD continues to threaten a constitutional complaint.
Contrary to what was planned, the payment of the crisis aid from the 1.6 billion package should not start until January 1, 2023 and not at the end of this year. Among other things, the funds are intended to cushion the drastic price increases for energy and electricity as a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The money will also be used to fight poverty.
With 100 million euros, the particular hardships of rising electricity and gas prices in the corporate sector are to be absorbed. 200 million euros are planned to compensate for increases in energy costs for local public transport. With another 100 million, inpatient care in the hospitals is to be secured in the event of a blackout.
Sports clubs are to be supported with around 55 million euros. The student unions will receive around 20 million euros to compensate for cost increases in the canteens. 10 million euros are to flow into a siren support program. The SPD criticized that the state government also wanted to finance its own desired projects with the aid pot.
The state parliament also wants to adopt the budget for 2023 on Tuesday. The budget has a volume of 94.7 billion euros. Initially, the CDU and the Greens had planned a budget of more than 100 billion euros because they wanted to transfer funds from the state’s corona rescue package, which expires at the end of the year, to the regular budget. The Court of Auditors had criticized this as unconstitutional.
