Mayor celebrates her birthday with a warning about the budget situation!

Mayor celebrates her birthday with a warning about the budget situation!

Today, August 24, 2025, Mayor Anke Hofmann received a bouquet of flowers from committee chairman Karsten Vollmar during the meeting of the Main and Finance Committee on her birthday. But this wasn't just a celebration; The focus was on the tense budget situation, which hovered like a shadow over the discussions. City Treasurer Angelina Tejkl informed those present about the current status of budget implementation, and the numbers were anything but encouraging.

As of July 31, 2025, a deficit of around 18.7 million euros was identified in liquidity planning. This deficit is forcing the city to reevaluate financial options and make future-oriented decisions. A liquidity loan of 19 million euros was taken out on July 31st. Four million euros of this had already been repaid on August 1st. But what exactly is a liquidity loan? How household control.de explained, these are debts taken out to provide short-term liquid assets. These financial resources ensure the solvency of the municipalities, although they are generally not covered by material assets.

The meaning of the deficit

The situation is extremely critical. High liquidity loan balances are considered a clear indicator of financial crises in municipalities. The available information makes it clear that income depends primarily on one-off tax revenues, while expenses are spread over the year. The liquidity loan represents a type of pre-financing in the budget, which is susceptible to interest rate fluctuations due to constant debt restructuring. Loud lexikon.householddata.de The original purpose of these loans, short-term liquidity generation, was put into perspective by increasing expenses and decreasing income over the years.

In order to improve the situation, a deferment of the Hessenkasse's own contribution was also granted. However, the repayment date of 800,000 euros remains unclear, which creates additional uncertainty. However, there are positive developments to look forward to: trade tax revenue has improved thanks to back payments in recent years. The festival's deficit is also expected to be lower because not all of the bills have been included. The Main and Finance Committee noted the status of budget implementation and the status of the investment projects.

The role of construction supervision

Another central point in the meeting was the future handling of construction supervision. The SPD parliamentary group submitted an application to examine whether construction supervision should be carried out under city management in the future. Mayor Hofmann underlined the advantages of this measure: “It allows us to act more flexibly and influentially.” Interestingly, there are only two other Hessian municipalities that rely on such municipal building supervision, which indicates a certain willingness to innovate in the region.

At today's meeting, a unanimous decision was made to change the shareholder structure of the Hersfeld-Rotenburg economic development agency. Finally, it was mentioned that the “Gutes aus Waldhessen” association would be replaced by the Hersfeld-Rotenburg landscape conservation association. Even if the financial challenges can hardly be overlooked, there are approaches that speak for the positive development of the city.