Heidelberg in the crisis: 954 citizens' ideas for the draft budget 2025!
Heidelberg in the crisis: 954 citizens' ideas for the draft budget 2025!
On February 25, 2025, Mayor Eckart Würzner and treasurer Wolfgang Polivka presented the draft budget for the years 2025 and 2026 in the Heidelberg town council. The city is confronted with a challenging financial situation, characterized by falling income, especially in the case of trade tax. At the same time, the expenditure increases due to new tasks that have to be taken over by the federal and state governments. This development leads to a significant debt, which is expected to achieve a debt of EUR 467.9 million in 2026, compared to EUR 326.3 million in late 2024. The need for cash loans is expected to be over 70 million euros From February 26 to March 21, 2025, the citizens received the opportunity to submit their ideas and wishes online from February 26 to March 21 to March 21, 2025. This methodology, which is known in Germany as a community budget, enables broad public participation in political processes. In Heidelberg, impressive 954 suggestions were submitted this year, more than three times as many as in the previous year. Loud mrn-news.de affects the majority of the proposals, 465 suggestions or 49 percent, the area of “school and education”. In particular, the promotion of school social work was mentioned with 434 suggestions.
Citizens' suggestions and their focus
The submitted proposals cover a variety of topics. 270 suggestions (29 percent) referred to culture, while 55 suggestions concerned the topic of equality. Other topics were:
- children, youth and families: 43 suggestions
- living, mobility and infrastructure: 27 suggestions
- social affairs, security and participation: 26 suggestions
- Sport and leisure: 14 suggestions
- Energy, environment and climate protection: 13 suggestions
The documentation of all anonymized suggestions is publicly visible and was sent to the local council at the end of March. This shows both the efforts for transparency and the will of the city to practice politics -related politics.
budget expenses in the coming year
In view of the financial situation, the budget draft aims to stabilize expenses at the level of 2024. Nevertheless, the expenses in different areas increase:- Childcare: from 108 million euros (2024) to 114.2 million euros (2025) and 118.2 million euros (2026)
- Education area: from 62.2 million euros (2024) to 64.6 million euros (2025) and 65.2 million euros (2026)
- Social and youth welfare: from 128.4 million euros (2024) to 139.2 million euros (2025) and 144.6 million euros (2026)
- Culture: from 57.2 million euros (2024) to 59 million euros (2025) and 58.9 million euros (2026)
The farewell of the household is planned for June 5, 2025. Before that, the political groups have the opportunity to bring in their amendments on April 9. This offers the elected politicians the opportunity to weigh up the citizens' proposals in the sense of the entire community.
The community budgets, as carried out in Heidelberg, are not representative, but offer citizens the opportunity to actively contribute to political decision -making processes. Although they do not affect any decisions about given options, they are a valuable addition to democratic instruments such as elections and referendums. The quality of the dialogue is important, which forms the basis for a transparent and inclusive process that can be shaped by the citizens themselves. According to bpb.de , the final decision is about the implementation of the suggestions in the hands of the chosen bodies.
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