AfD on finance and taxes

The AfD wants a balanced state budget and strict application of the debt brake. Suspending it would only be possible if the state parliament declares an emergency with a two-thirds majority. All spending is to be reviewed and old debt repaid under a binding rule.

The AfD wants Hesse to take on no new debt. The debt brake should apply strictly. This is a rule against new debt. Exceptions should only be possible in an emergency. Two thirds of the state parliament would have to agree.

The platform points to state debt of 43.97 billion euros at the end of 2021, or 50.54 billion euros including liabilities to the WIBank. The two-thirds threshold for suspending the debt brake is to be written into the Hessian constitution. Beyond net new borrowing, other shortfalls would also count, such as unfunded pension obligations, liabilities to the WIBank and off-budget entities. The AfD also calls for a binding rule for paying down old debt.

The AfD wants more transparency in how public projects are financed and rejects debt-financed special funds. It opposes public-private partnerships on principle because, according to audit offices, they cost too much. Privatizing essential public services should only be decided by local referendums.

The AfD does not want special funds. These are pots of money outside the normal budget, often paid for with debt. The state should also not build together with private companies. The AfD says this costs too much. Citizens should vote before important public services are sold.

The party points out that its lawsuit before the state constitutional court brought down the state government's Covid special fund. As an example of overpriced public-private partnerships, the platform cites hospital financing. The rules on transparency in public contracts are also to be reviewed. The AfD cites the events at the AWO welfare association in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden as the reason.

The AfD wants to cut subsidies in Hesse and review all funding programs along with their procedures and institutions. It also wants wasteful use of tax money to be uncovered and punished more consistently.

The AfD wants fewer subsidies. That is money the state pays to support something. All funding programs in Hesse should be checked. People who waste tax money should face consequences.

The platform describes the funding landscape in Hesse as confusing and wants to review it as a whole. On waste, the AfD criticizes that even small tax offenses are prosecuted while wasteful handling of public money usually has no consequences. It therefore calls for such cases to be uncovered and punished more consistently.

The AfD wants to give states and municipalities more money by renegotiating how public revenue is shared between the federal government, states and municipalities. Municipalities should gain enough leeway that the property tax (Grundsteuer) can be dropped. Earmarked state grants would shrink in favor of freely usable allocations.

The AfD wants more money for states and towns. Tax money should be shared out in a new way. Towns should then no longer need the property tax. People pay this tax for land and houses. Towns should decide more freely how to spend their money.

The platform calls states and municipalities the levels closest to citizens and wants to strengthen them financially. The AfD regards the property tax as administratively costly. Within the municipal financial equalization system, unearmarked allocations would grow while earmarked ones fall, and state funding programs would be scaled back. When the state hands new tasks to cities and towns, it should bear the costs itself (the connexity principle).

The AfD wants to abolish the real estate transfer tax for owner-occupied homes. It argues that the tax makes moving harder and puts workers at a disadvantage who relocate for their jobs. Road construction fees charged to residents are also to be dropped across Hesse.

People who buy a house or apartment pay a transfer tax. The AfD wants to end this tax for homes people live in themselves. Moving should become easier. Road construction fees should also end. These are costs that residents pay when their street is built or repaired.

In the AfD's view, a tax on moving does not fit a mobile and aging society, especially when housing is scarce. The party says it will push for abolition at both state and federal level. Road construction fees are to be eliminated completely in every Hessian city and town.

The AfD wants to abolish the property transfer tax for owner-occupied homes and scrap the property tax entirely. Municipalities would be compensated for losing the property tax. Sellers would pay real estate agent fees on purchases in the future.

People who buy a house pay a tax. The AfD wants to end this tax if you live there yourself. The yearly property tax should go too. Towns should get other money instead. The seller should pay the real estate agent.

In the party's view, the property transfer tax makes it harder to change where and how one lives because it is charged again with every purchase. The platform calls the property tax a tax on assets that burdens both renters and owners. Both taxes would be dropped without replacement, the transfer tax for owner-occupied property. For agent fees, purchases would follow the same principle that applies to rentals.