CDU on finance and taxes

The CDU wants to keep Saxony's ban on new state borrowing and the Generationenfonds (generations fund). It argues that today's budget decisions must not burden future generations.

The CDU wants no new debt for Saxony. The state should only spend money it has already taken in. The generations fund should stay too. This is a savings pot of the state for later costs. The CDU says this protects younger people.

The platform describes a debt-free budget as a principle with constitutional rank. The state should spend only what it has previously collected. The CDU also wants to build reserves to offset swings in revenue and unexpected expenses. Fiscal policy is meant to be geared toward provision for the future.

The CDU wants to concentrate state funds on the core tasks of government and to review and, where possible, cut existing tasks, spending and standards. In the platform's view, public budgets have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

The CDU wants the state to spend its money on the most important tasks. These include security, education, administration and money for towns. It wants to check other spending and cut it. The state should also be careful about hiring new staff.

The platform lists infrastructure and basic public services, internal security, efficient administration, municipal funding and education as core tasks. Beyond these, investment should take priority over day-to-day spending, and the investment rate should stay high. The CDU calls for restraint in public hiring so that the state does not compete with businesses during a skilled-labor shortage. Digitizing administration is meant to save staff without lowering service quality. The party rejects tax-funded policies for special interests.

The CDU wants to raise the Pendlerpauschale (commuter tax allowance) from 30 to 38 cents starting with the first kilometer. Commuters could then deduct more travel costs from their taxes.

Many people travel far to work. There is a commuter allowance for that. It lowers the taxes they pay. The CDU wants to raise it from 30 to 38 cents per kilometer.

The increase is to apply from the very first kilometer of the trip to work. The rate would rise by 8 cents per kilometer, or a little more than a quarter. The demand ties in with the CDU's goal of securing free choice of transport and keeping the car as an important mode of travel.

The CDU wants the federal and state governments to hand new tasks to municipalities only together with the money needed. A matching compensation rule for extra burdens is to be written into the Basic Law (Germany's constitution). The party keeps the municipal fiscal equalization system and wants grants to be awarded more freely and as lump sums.

Towns often get new tasks from the federal government. The CDU says: whoever orders a task should pay for it. This rule should go into the constitution. Towns should be freer in how they spend grant money. Applying for grants should get simpler.

The platform calls for strict application of the principle "whoever orders, pays" and puts the onus mainly on the federal government, which the CDU says passes on burdens without sufficient funds. Compensation for added burdens, modeled on the Saxon constitution, is to be anchored in the Basic Law, with federal and state payments adjusted. Fiscal equalization remains the tool for distributing funds; its mechanisms are to be reviewed with a view to the independence of small municipalities. The party wants to replace elaborate grant procedures with lump sums, citing urban development funding and road construction budgets as models.