City plans to reduce tax threshold

The city council is looking to reduce the tax threshold from 58 per cent at present to 54 per cent, and over a sustainable period.

This is just one example of what the city plans to do after having been able to present a balanced budget, if not a possible CHF 780,000 surplus, for 2019.  Figures showed it is looking to income from taxes amounting to CHF 208.7 million, though it is possible a further CHF 8.3 million could flow into the city’s coffers. One positive aspect this year was that more income than expected from individuals, as opposed to companies.

Looking at current trends, by 2019 the city’s population is expected to have risen by 2 per cent, when compared with 2017, with the number of school pupils rising by 2.81 per cent. As for those employees who work in administration, their numbers are expected to rise by 3.27 per cent and those working in the education sector by 8.29 per cent. As Vroni Sraub, the city councillor responsible for education, said, there were waiting lists for places for child care and for prepared lunches for school children. Furthermore, more courses in German were needed as a result of the demand from expatriate parents.

In addition to catering for these needs, Karl Kobelt, the city’s directors of finance, said how CHF 4.9 million had been earmarked from next year’s budget to pay for the move of administration offices into the former Landis+Gyr building in Gubelstrasse (second photograph). On this matter, the council has now decided not to sell the property it owns at number 7 Aegeristrasse, but to let it out for the purpose of school administration. Then CHF 5 million is needed for the alterations to Riedmatt school and CHF 6.8 million for various road projects, not to mention CHF 2 million still outstanding for drainage and flood prevention. The sum of CHF 3.5 million was also having to be put aside to pay for the equivalent of 15.26 new full-time jobs.

As a result of the implementation of the new Lehrplan 21 syllabus, a further CHF 700,000 was having to be found to provide all pupils in class 5 and above with the appropriate equipment necessary for them to take the now obligatory Media and IT courses.

Urs Raschle, the city councillor responsible for social, environmental and public safety matters said that increased demands on the city's voluntary fire brigade was one of his concerns, not least as there were falling members.