Cantons demand corrections to the Federal Council’s austerity package
Published: Friday, Sep 20th 2024, 15:00
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The cantons have reservations about the Federal Council's savings proposals. Simply shifting the burden to the detriment of the cantons would not have any real savings effect. Corrections are therefore still needed.
Healthy federal finances are also in the interests of the cantons, wrote the Conference of Cantonal Governments (KdK) in a statement on Friday. However, in many areas of responsibility with joint federal and cantonal funding, the latter are bound to predetermined performance levels. They are therefore unable to relieve themselves to the same extent as the Confederation and even have to cover funding gaps in the short term.
Direct burden-shifting is therefore firmly rejected, said Aargau Finance Director Markus Dieth (center), who is also President of the KdK, in the communiqué.
The cantonal governments acknowledge that the Federal Council has taken various points of criticism from the cantons into account. However, various critical measures remain and the bill still needs to be corrected.
The KdK also warned that the ongoing project to unbundle federal and cantonal tasks and their financing should not be jeopardized. "According to this, each level of government can take austerity measures as necessary within its own area of responsibility," said Dieth.
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