Relief in sight for those cantons, including Zug,

The Finance Committee of the Council of States, the smaller of the two parliamentary chambers in Bern, has agreed that those cantons which contribute to the National Equalisation Fund should have the financial burden they have to bear reduced, following a reform of the way the contributions are worked out.

The chairman of the said Finance Committee, Hannes Germann, a member of the SVP party from the canton of Schaffhausen, announced that it had agreed to welcome the reforms proposed by the Federal Council, which themselves were a compromise based on what had been worked out by the Conference of Cantonal Governments.

Those previously voting against any reform were the cantons of Jura and Wallis, the former benefiting to the tune of CHF 730.2 million, with the cantons of Bern, which at CHF 1.187 billion benefits the most, and that of Fribourg, abstaining.

All agreed, however, that the way calculations were made should no longer be through political decision but according to a fixed mathematical formula. At present parliament decides every four years on the basic levels contributing cantons provide, while the rest benefit.

As reported last June, the contributions calculated for next year meant that largest contribution, CHF 490 million, was to be paid by the canton of Zurich, with Zug paying the second largest contribution at CHF 329.4 million (up by CHF 17 million on this year) and Geneva, the third largest contributor, paying CHF 299.8 million. The other donating cantons are Schwyz, the City of Basel, Nidwalden and Obwalden, these latter two cantons, however, donating “only” CHF 45.5 million and CHF 7.5 million respectively. Argovia benefits to the tune of CHF 400.7 million a year but as it is currently the guest canton at the Zug Fair this year, it is best perhaps not to mention this at present.

In further amendments to the way the NFA is worked out, the state’s contribution to the fund is expected to amount to 150 per cent of those of the largest contributing cantons, which means these, Zug among them, will pay less.