Municipal Audit Office Discloses Information Regarding Laasphe's Finances
Bad Laasphe, a municipality in North Rhine-Westphalia, is grappling with a significant budget shortfall in business tax revenue, amounting to 4.8 million euros for the fiscal year 2025. The shortfall, according to recent audit results published by gpa.NRW, is due to various factors such as underperforming businesses, lower profits, reassessments, and reductions in tax liabilities.
To address this issue, local authorities are being advised to implement a series of financial and administrative measures. These measures typically include cost-cutting, re-evaluating tax assessments, increasing efficiency, exploring alternative revenue sources, and engaging with businesses to stimulate economic growth.
Frank Breidenbach, a city representative, recommends several specific actions. He suggests creating a checklist for the standardized process of various procedures, deadlines, and documentation requirements for ordnungsbehördliche burial cases. Breidenbach also advocates for updating the city's procurement service instructions and establishing additional regulations for standardized handling of change orders.
In addition, Breidenbach emphasizes the importance of analysing the causes of change orders and drawing conclusions from them to prevent corruption. He also highlights the need for a binding framework for action in another part of budget management, credit and investment management.
The city's IT security in schools needs improvement, and Breidenbach believes that Bad Laasphe is well-positioned in the digitization of its schools, but active engagement with the new possibilities of digital and hybrid Gremiensitzungen is necessary for the future. The administration is promoting paperless Gremienarbeit by providing mobile end devices.
Mayor Dirk Terlinden points out the structural underfunding of municipalities in NRW as a long-term challenge to municipal budgets, citing medium-term investment needs and ongoing cost increases. The high cost of Gremienarbeit in Bad Laasphe is due to a relatively large council, an above-average number of factions, committees, and meeting dates.
To ensure binding and future-oriented planning of school IT, a cross-school media development plan should be created. The city's budget only transfers a small amount of budget reserves for investments in subsequent years.
Bad Laasphe is commended for cooperating with Kreis Siegen-Wittgenstein in the procurement process, and the city manages to cover the higher expenses for ordnungsbehördliche burial cases due to cemetery fees through cost reimbursements.
The reduction of the council by eight seats in the next legislative period is an important step towards consolidation, but it must be accompanied by an optimization of business processes in the session business. To ensure the financing of investments in Bad Laasphe, the approach practiced in the acquisition and management of grant funds should be worked out in a binding guideline by the city in the future.
In conclusion, Bad Laasphe is taking a comprehensive approach to address its budget challenges, focusing on cost-cutting, re-evaluating tax assessments, increasing efficiency, exploring alternative revenue sources, and engaging with businesses. The city is also prioritizing the digitization of its schools and the optimization of its political processes.
- As part of the comprehensive approach to address the budget shortfall, the city is contemplating a policy-and-legislation review, particularly focusing on implementing financial measures such as cost-cutting, re-evaluating tax assessments, and increasing efficiency, and engaging in politics to stimulate economic growth.
- To ensure the continued growth and sustainability of the city's finance sector, it is crucial to explore alternative revenue sources, engage with businesses, and establish a binding framework for action, which may include a cross-school media development plan and a guideline for acquiring and managing grant funds.
