Grüne on finance and taxes

The Greens want to gear Bavaria's budget toward climate protection and run a sustainability check on major budget items. Subsidies they consider harmful to the climate and environment would end, for example for road building and regional airports.

The Greens want to use state money for climate protection. Every important expense gets checked. If it harms the climate, it is cut. This applies to new roads and small airports, for example.

The check is based on the Paris Climate Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Spending would also be reviewed for long-term follow-up costs and its benefit to the public. In an impact-oriented budget, investments in climate and environmental protection and in working public infrastructure take priority. Spending the platform calls ineffective, unnecessary or harmful to the common good would be cut, including money for land consumption, new and expanded roads, and regional airports. All ministries are to review their tasks critically.

The Greens want more state investment in climate-friendly transportation, education, digitalization and energy supply. Caps on investment that they consider harmful to the climate would be abolished. Borrowing by state-owned holdings would also be used.

The Greens want to put more money into schools, rail, internet and energy. Fixed limits on such spending would go. Companies owned by the state could also take out loans for this. The party says this helps future generations too.

A transformation fund is meant to boost sustainable investment and stimulate the economy. Borrowing by state-owned holdings would enable investments that comply with the debt rule, such as social housing and the ecological transition. This is to come with transparency and oversight by government and parliament. The platform argues that an investment backlog is a hidden form of debt and that schools and rail lines create lasting public assets.

The Greens want to give cities, towns and counties more money, largely without earmarks. Areas such as the courts, police, fire services and the public health service are also to be soundly funded.

The Greens want to give cities and towns more money. The towns should decide for themselves how to spend it. Police, fire services, courts and rescue services should also get enough money.

In the municipal revenue-sharing system, project-based grants, which the platform calls cumbersome, would be scaled back; new roads are given as an example. Municipalities would also get more help in drawing on federal and EU funding programs. Planning for municipalities and grant recipients is to be long-term and reliable, and funds are to be used in a gender-equitable way. The platform promises sound funding for security-related areas such as disaster control and rescue services as well as the public health service.

The Greens want Bavaria's property tax to depend on location and building value as well, and to introduce a Grundsteuer C (a tax on undeveloped building land) from 2025. At the federal level they back an inheritance tax reform that closes loopholes and spares owner-occupied homes.

The Greens want to change the property tax. This is a tax on land and houses. It should also depend on location and value. From 2025 there would be a special tax on empty building plots. The tax on inheritances should change too.

Grundsteuer C is a higher rate that municipalities can charge on land that is ready for building but left undeveloped. It would apply from January 1, 2025, make land speculation less attractive and bring municipalities extra revenue. In Bavaria the tax would no longer depend mainly on area. At the federal level the party advocates developing the property tax further and reforming inheritance tax to prevent avoidance and, in its view, make the system fairer toward earned income.

The Greens want to equip the tax authorities better so they can act effectively against tax evasion and financial crime. Vacant posts would be filled and new ones created.

Some people do not pay their taxes honestly. The Greens want to go after this more strongly. Tax offices would get more staff. There would also be more better-paid jobs.

The platform speaks of a built-up shortage of tax officials that is to be reduced step by step and in a targeted way. More posts at pay grade A12, or in the upper-intermediate civil service, are also planned to make the work more attractive. The reasoning is that no one should enrich themselves at the public's expense and that money is needed for future investment. Revenue is to be raised so that those with greater means contribute more.

The Greens want to merge the development institutions LfA and BayernLaBo into one development and transformation bank that finances climate-neutral investment. The state's assets would be put on a climate-neutral path.

Bavaria has two development banks. The Greens want to turn them into one bank. It would give money for climate-friendly projects. The state's own money would also be invested in a climate-friendly way.

The new bank would use the state's top credit rating to raise private capital, for example through green bonds and other sustainable finance instruments. It would help municipalities, businesses and households invest while cutting red tape and duplicate structures. The climate-neutral investment approach would also cover pension assets, state-owned companies and state foundations. Companies majority-owned by the public sector would withdraw from climate-damaging projects abroad.