Berlin (dpa/lhe) – As part of the financial equalization between the 16 federal states, around 18.5 billion euros were redistributed last year. This emerges from the accounting results published by the Federal Ministry of Finance on Friday. Five federal states – including Hesse – are donor states, while eleven federal states benefited from payments from the equalization.
With almost 9.9 billion euros, Bavaria bore the greatest burden. The Free State paid for more than half of the redistributed money. Baden-Württemberg paid almost 4.5 billion euros, and Hesse paid 3.25 billion euros. Hamburg contributed around 814 million euros and Rhineland-Palatinate around 107 million euros. The fact that Rhineland-Palatinate became a donor state is mainly due to the Mainz-based vaccine producer Biontech and its tax payments. With around 3.6 billion euros, Berlin is the largest beneficiary of the redistribution. The five eastern German non-city states also get money from the pot.
Bavaria’s Finance Minister Albert Füracker (CSU) announced in mid-January that the Free State was preparing a possible lawsuit before the Federal Constitutional Court. “Bavaria supports in solidarity, but solidarity and personal responsibility must be balanced,” emphasized Füracker. The balance is constantly dwindling, it cannot go on like this.
In 2013, Bavaria – together with Hesse – had already filed a lawsuit against the state financial equalization system at the time. The two states then withdrew their lawsuit in 2017 after the financial relations between the federal and state governments had been reorganized. The system is now called financial power equalization. It serves the goal enshrined in the Basic Law of creating equal living conditions in Germany.
