CDU on finance and taxes

The CDU rules out new taxes, new levies and tax increases for Rhineland-Palatinate. Through the Bundesrat, it also wants to bring about a lower electricity tax for everyone. This is meant to relieve private households and make businesses more competitive.

The CDU promises no new taxes in the state. Existing taxes should not go up. The tax on electricity should also go down for everyone. Then households and businesses pay less for energy.

The electricity tax cut is to be pushed through an initiative in the Bundesrat, the chamber of the federal states. It is to apply to everyone, meaning private households as well as companies. The platform bases its stance on the view that prosperity is earned by people and businesses, not provided by the state. With a more active location policy, the party wants to compete with neighboring states.

The CDU wants to restructure the Kommunaler Finanzausgleich (municipal fiscal equalization): municipalities would get more unrestricted money instead of many separate funding programs. Whoever assigns them tasks or raises standards would have to pay for them. The aim is for cities, towns and counties to invest on their own again.

The state gives money to cities and towns. The CDU wants to change how this money is shared. Towns should get more money they can use freely. They should decide for themselves how to spend it. If the state gives new tasks, it must pay for them.

The reform is the core of a Rhineland-Palatinate plan called "Heimat" under the motto "activate rather than subsidize." Minimum funding levels would be recalculated and adjusted every year. A permanent hardship fund is planned for especially burdened municipalities. State laws would undergo a binding check on whether the state covers the cost of tasks it assigns (the Konnexität principle). The CDU also wants to review standards, simplify procedures, stop making municipalities pre-finance the state's share, and pay out grants within one year of a project's completion.

The CDU wants to abolish Straßenausbaubeiträge (charges on property owners for road improvements) entirely. Road work would be paid from general state funds instead, because the platform sees roads as a basic public service rather than the concern of individual adjacent owners.

Today residents must help pay to rebuild their street. The CDU wants to end this. The state should provide the money. The CDU says roads are there for everyone.

Funding would come through a permanent flat-rate investment grant that is not part of municipal fiscal equalization. Municipalities would keep deciding on planning and construction themselves. The platform expects this to relieve residents financially and to eliminate administrative procedures.

The CDU wants to make the state budget transparent and put unused funds into investment. In its view, the state takes in enough money but does not spend it on future needs.

The CDU says the state has enough money. But it does not spend the money. The CDU wants to show where money sits unused in the budget. That money should go to roads, schools and security. Towns and cities should also get a share.

The platform points to state surpluses since 2016 and, at the same time, to what it describes as the largest investment backlog among the states. Reserves and unspent budget funds are said to have reached record levels. The CDU wants to disclose which funds are committed, blocked or not drawn down. Carried-over unspent appropriations are to be released where they hold back other investments. The money is to go into infrastructure, education, security and municipalities.