What do the parties in Baden-Württemberg say on finance and taxes?

The AfD wants to create a permanent state fund modeled on Norway's within its first 100 days. Its returns on the capital markets would pay for extra infrastructure investment without new debt. The money would come from savings in the budget.

Roads, bridges and schools need money. The AfD does not want new debt for this. It wants to set up a fund. A fund is a big pot of money that is invested. The state would build and repair with the profits.

The AfD wants to give municipalities more revenue of their own and more tax autonomy, and to rebuild the municipal fiscal equalization system as a two-tier model. In its account, the current system neither secures adequate basic funding nor rewards municipalities for cultivating their own tax sources.

The AfD wants to give cities and towns more money. Towns should decide more taxes themselves. The way money is shared between the state and towns should also change. The AfD says the current system does not work.

The AfD calls for a new reform of fiscal equalization among Germany's states and backs Bavaria's lawsuit before the Federal Constitutional Court. It considers the growing burden on the few contributor states unacceptable.

Rich German states give money to poorer states. Baden-Württemberg is one of the states that pay. The AfD thinks the paying states pay too much. It wants to change the rules. It supports a lawsuit by Bavaria in court.

The AfD wants to scrap the Grundsteuer (property tax) completely. It considers the tax unfair, costly to administer and a burden on owners and renters alike. Municipalities would get a larger share of federal tax revenue instead.

The AfD wants to end the property tax. This is a tax on land and buildings. The AfD thinks this tax is unfair. Towns and cities should get money from the federal government instead.

The CDU wants to lower the real estate transfer tax in stages to 3.5 percent of the purchase price in order to reduce the extra costs of buying property. At the federal level it wants to secure further tax relief for home ownership.

People pay a tax when they buy a house or apartment. The CDU wants to lower this tax step by step. In the end it should be 3.5 percent of the price. This makes buying cheaper.

The CDU wants to stabilize municipal finances and secure room for local investment. It points to falling local business tax revenue alongside growing tasks. Planned are additional state funds, higher grants and a larger equalization fund.

Cities and towns should get more money from the state. They take in less tax and have more tasks. The state should pay more for daycare centers. A support fund for towns should grow to 350 million euros.

The CDU commits to the Schuldenbremse (debt brake) and wants to review all state spending to relieve the budget for the long term. The more than 300 grant programs are to be cut back substantially. The savings are to go to education, security and the economy.

The CDU wants to keep the debt brake. That is a rule against new debt. The state should check all its spending. There should be far fewer grant programs. The money saved should go to education, security and the economy.

The CDU wants to achieve at the federal level that municipalities get a larger share of value-added tax revenue. As an alternative, it is considering letting counties and municipalities set their own multiplier on income tax. It also calls for a reform of the fiscal equalization system among the states.

Towns should get more of the sales tax. The CDU wants to push for that at the federal level. Otherwise, towns could set part of the income tax themselves. Baden-Württemberg should have to give less money to other states.

The CDU wants to allow municipalities a separate multiplier with which they can ease the burden on owners of residential land. The reason, in its view, is excessive burdens from the property tax reform. Municipalities are also to be allowed to waive Grundsteuer A.

Towns should decide more on property tax themselves. They should be able to tax residential land at a lower rate. Then some owners pay less. Towns should also be allowed to drop the property tax on farmland and forest.

The Greens want to channel part of the reserves for civil servant pensions into sustainable projects within the state. This would make it easier for municipalities to invest in heating networks, which the platform says also benefits local businesses and trades.

The state saves money for the pensions of civil servants. The Greens want to invest part of it within the state. The money should go into sustainable projects. One example is heating networks in towns and cities.

The Greens want to secure the finances of cities and towns for the long term, in the short run through a larger municipal share of value-added tax revenue. Under the connexity principle, whoever assigns tasks to municipalities should also provide the money.

Many cities and towns have too little money. The Greens want to give them more money from sales tax. Whoever gives towns new tasks should also pay for them. This applies to the state, the federal government and the EU.

The Greens want to attract private money for public infrastructure and climate protection and expand the state's green bonds. In the platform's view, the energy transition and modernization can only be financed with public and private funds together.

Climate protection and new networks cost a lot of money. The Greens also want to use money from private investors for this. The state issues green bonds for this purpose. There should be more of them.

The Greens want to pass two thirds of the more than 13 billion euros that Baden-Württemberg receives from the federal special fund on to municipalities. The rest is to go as state investment into university hospitals, universities and transport infrastructure.

Baden-Württemberg gets more than 13 billion euros from the federal government. The Greens want to give two thirds to cities and towns. This should improve schools, daycare, roads and buses. The rest goes to hospitals and universities.

The Greens say they are open to reforming the Schuldenbremse (debt brake) at the state level too, but consider a limit on the debt ratio right in principle. At the same time, they want to review existing spending and target funding more precisely.

The debt brake limits new government debt. The Greens want to be able to change this rule in the state. But there should still be a limit on debt. The state should spend money in a more targeted way and save in some places.

The Greens want to prosecute tax fraud, money laundering and organized financial crime more vigorously and expand the tax administration's staff and digital tools for that purpose. They justify this with fairness toward everyone who pays taxes honestly.

Some people and companies cheat on taxes. The Greens want to go after this more strongly. Tax offices should get more staff and better technology. People who pay taxes honestly should not be worse off.

The Greens want to push at the federal level to close inheritance tax exemptions they regard as unfair. They argue that unequally distributed wealth stands in the way of equal opportunity.

Wealth is unevenly shared in Germany. The Greens think this is unfair. The tax on inheritances has exceptions for very large fortunes. The Greens want to end these exceptions at the federal level.

The Greens want to lower the Grunderwerbsteuer (property transfer tax) for people buying a home for the first time to live in themselves. This requires the federal government to allow it by law. The relief is to be designed in a socially fair way.

People who buy a house pay a tax. It is called property transfer tax. The Greens want to lower it for a first purchase. This applies to people who live there themselves. First the federal government must allow it.

The SPD wants to expand energy, transport and telecommunications networks and issue a state bond to pay for it. Investors would put money into transport projects and electricity and hydrogen grids without public infrastructure being privatized.

The SPD wants to expand roads, railways and networks. The state should issue a bond for this. That means investors lend the state money. The infrastructure should still belong to the state.

The SPD wants the state to cover the full cost of new tasks it assigns to municipalities. An amendment to the state constitution is meant to make this legally clear and avoid court disputes.

The state often gives towns and cities new tasks. The SPD wants the state to pay for these tasks in full. To do this, it wants to change the state constitution.

The SPD wants to give municipalities considerably more state money: about 300 million euros a year by ending state deductions, plus another 500 million euros a year through an investment fund. The state would also take on debt for this. Grant programs would be bundled.

The SPD wants to give towns and cities more money. They should get 300 million euros more each year. On top of that come 500 million euros a year for investments. The state may borrow money for this.