The additional costs for the energy and transport turnaround are pushing the budget in Leipzig and also other municipalities to its limits. "Whoever orders the transport turnaround also needs an idea to implement it financially," said Leipzig's mayor Burkhard Jung. Would not come support from the federal government and the states, it is not to be created, stressed the SPD politician.
Accordingly, the budget in Leipzig has a volume of about 2.6 billion euros annually. The costs of the heat conversion alone amount to up to six billion euros in the coming years. In addition, there are costs in each case in the low three-digit million range for the wastewater supply and schools. Jung called for a round table at which the federal government, states and municipalities can find lasting structural solutions. "We have the burning expectation that the federal and state governments will not leave us hanging. So far, we are not properly heard there."
And this financing problem has almost all cities in Germany - whether rich or poor, as Jung further said, who has been on the board of the German Association of Cities since 2007. In Leipzig alone, the annual operating costs for local public transport (ÖPNV) are 300 million euros. About 90 percent is financed locally and only about half by ticket sales.
