Linke on finance and taxes

The Left wants to abolish or fundamentally reform the Schuldenbremse (debt brake) at the federal level and in Saxony so the state can borrow to invest in infrastructure and climate protection. Public investment companies are to be set up for this purpose.

The debt brake limits new government debt. The Left wants to scrap it or change it a lot. Then the state can borrow more money. It should use the money to build and repair schools, hospitals and networks.

In the platform's view, the debt brake acts as a brake on investment and has caused a backlog at daycare centers, schools, universities, hospitals, housing, and broadband, energy and heating networks. The Left says it is ready for the necessary constitutional amendments and calls for much longer repayment periods. Public investment companies with legal capacity should be newly founded or developed from the state's existing holding companies. The Sächsische Aufbaubank (Saxony's development bank) should play a larger role in these investments.

The Left wants to ease the burden on low and middle incomes and tax corporations, top earners and the wealthy more heavily. It justifies this with what it sees as excessive inequality in income and wealth.

The Left wants to share money differently. People with low or middle incomes should pay less. Big companies and rich people should pay more taxes.

The platform notes that the richest tenth owns more than two thirds of private wealth, while the poorer half holds only a little over one percent. In some Saxon districts, it says, almost half of employees work in the low-wage sector. In the Left's view, a democratic community cannot withstand such inequality in the long run.

The Left wants to reorganize the financial relationship between the state and municipalities and base it on municipal needs. A self-government lump sum and participatory budgets are meant to allow more decisions to be made locally.

Towns and villages have too little money. The Left wants to give them as much as they need. Part of the money should be free to use. Local people should help decide how money is spent.

Funding should take regional differences in size, population and economic strength into account. The lump sum is intended for voluntary tasks, for example in housing, social affairs and culture. Municipalities should be encouraged to introduce participatory budgets. The Left wants to replace the many grant programs with co-financing rules and earmarks with cooperative task fulfillment, where whoever orders a task pays for it. It also wants more women in local politics, since the platform says only 11 percent of mayors are women.