Finances Bern City Council increases budget deficit

The deficit in the City of Bern's 2025 budget continues to grow. During the detailed discussion on Thursday evening, the City Council increased the expenditure surplus by around one million francs.

It decided on additional expenditure for sports clubs, open youth work and the Office for Migration and Racism, among other things. However, parliament has not yet discussed three of the five directorates. The debate will continue on Friday.

The municipal council had presented a deficit of around 28 million francs. The red-green majority of the city council defended the additional debt associated with the high investments. It was necessary in order to be able to hand over an intact public infrastructure to future generations.

The center-right camp with the FDP, SVP, GLP and center castigated the deficit, job expansion and the high level of new debt. However, all motions for rejection were unsuccessful. The FDP, for example, demanded in vain that the budget at least be balanced and a savings package with cuts in expenditure that did not benefit any core task.

The council did not want to change the tax rate of 1.54. The Alternative Linke had called for an increase to 1.7, while the SVP demanded a reduction to 1.49.

High deficit in the current year

Where the city of Bern stands financially is still a matter of debate. For the center-right, the situation is worrying. The left-wing of the council considers this to be pure pessimism: budgets with deficits have always been followed by financial statements with surpluses.

This will not be the case in 2024, as Finance Director Michael Aebersold (SP) announced. This year's budget will be "plus-minus" - and that means a deficit of around CHF 40 million. There is no reason to hope for a miracle in the form of unexpectedly high tax revenues; the corresponding corrections have already been made.

Under the sign of the elections

The two-day debate on the budget and task/financial plan is dominated by the elections at the end of November. The center-right camp has come together for the first time on a joint list and is aiming for a second seat in the red-green dominated city government.

Municipal council candidates from the left and right took the opportunity on Thursday to make their presence felt in the debate. They were not sparing with their attacks on the other block.

Discordant tones

However, there are also tensions within the Green camp, where city councillor Ursina Anderegg (Green Alliance) and mayor Alec von Graffenried (Green Free List) could possibly become rivals for just one city council seat.

On Thursday evening, the mayor asked to postpone his department's budget discussion on Friday by a few hours because he had an important meeting. The request was clearly approved - the no votes came mainly from the Green Alliance.

SDA