Vote on the climate fund initiative in the canton of St. Gallen
Published: Tuesday, Nov 7th 2023, 09:00
Updated At: Wednesday, Nov 8th 2023, 00:53
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On November 19, the voters of St. Gallen will decide on three cantonal proposals. Firstly, additional funding for energy promotion. Secondly, more money is to be made available for external childcare. The third proposal concerns the relocation of the St. Gallen district court.
In April 2022, a committee led by the SP submitted the popular initiative for a climate fund with around 5,300 signatures. The demand: CHF 100 million from the special equity capital should be used to replace heating systems that use fossil fuels and to generate electricity from photovoltaics, wind power and biomass.
The majority of the Cantonal Council rejected the climate fund initiative in the June 2023 session by 73 votes to 29. Instead, a government counter-proposal with a special credit of CHF 59 million was approved by 82 votes to 32.
The government added global federal contributions of around CHF 82 million to the special credit and arrived at a total amount of CHF 142 million. This is intended to accelerate the replacement of fossil fuel heating systems and the modernization of building envelopes.
During the debate, the SP criticized the fact that the counter-proposal included federal subsidies for existing programmes. Only the special credit of CHF 59 million is new. This amount is significantly lower than the CHF 100 million of the climate fund. The committee therefore decided to stick to its initiative.
More support for childcare
The other two proposals were undisputed in parliament. In the canton of St. Gallen, the annual contributions to supplementary family and school childcare are to be increased from five to ten million francs.
The municipalities can use the money to reduce parents' third-party childcare costs, expand services or improve the childcare ratio, depending on their needs. The bill was approved in the final vote in June with 111 votes in favor, 2 against and 7 abstentions.
The St. Gallen district court, which has been rented at two locations in the city of St. Gallen to date, is to move to Schützengasse 1 due to a lack of space, among other reasons. The total costs amount to CHF 27.2 million. This expenditure must be approved by voters on November 19. The business was approved by the cantonal council without dissenting votes.
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