LU Cantonal Council Lucerne Cantonal Council accommodates businesses with hardship allowances

The Lucerne Cantonal Council is partially revoking the principle that no profit should be made with public funds. Certain companies that received Covid hardship funds under the cantonal regime should be able to keep the profits they made with them.

On Tuesday, the Cantonal Council approved an urgent motion submitted by its Committee for Economic Affairs and Taxation (Wak) by 86 votes to 27. The SP and the Greens voted against it. The government requested that the motion be rejected.

The motion demanded that the reimbursement of À-fonds-perdu contributions, on which there was no reference to the so-called conditional profit repatriation, be waived. These are mainly payments made before April 21, 2021 and affect companies with a turnover of less than CHF 5 million.

"Do not finance profits"

The government council rejected the demand. No profits should be financed with taxpayers' money, it explained. Companies that received Covid-19 hardship payments and made profits during the crisis years should therefore repay the money up to the amount of the profit made.

All companies, regardless of whether they received money from the federal government or the canton, should be treated equally, said government councillor Fabian Peter (FDP) in parliament.

"Stubbornness"

Wak spokesman Guido Müller (SVP) accused the government council of "stubbornness". The solution worked out by his commission was a "Solomonic compromise".

The supporters of the Wak solution from the ranks of the center, the SVP, the FDP and the GLP argued above all that the lost trust of companies must be regained. "À-fonds-perdu" means "the money is lost", said Wak spokesperson Müller. The recovery must therefore be waived.

"Kneeling"

The SP and Greens, on the other hand, were not happy with the Wak solution. Marcel Budmiger (SP) said that this was not a compromise, but a knee-jerk reaction. Simone Brunner (SP) said that many companies that had made a profit had already paid back their hardship payments. Only a few were resisting, she said.

According to government councillor Peter, a total of CHF 23 million is involved. CHF 16 million is attributable to the federal government and CHF 7 million to the canton of Lucerne.

SDA