Finances Bern's city budget goes before the people with a 30-million deficit

On election Sunday in November, voters in the city of Bern will have to decide on a budget that is deep in the red. On Friday, the city council approved the 2025 budget with a deficit of 29.8 million francs.

The municipal council had planned a deficit of 28 million. Over the course of the seven-hour debate, parliament approved additional funds, particularly for social and cultural affairs.

For example, the City Council increased cultural funding by CHF 620,000 and allocated CHF 75,000 to the Museumsquartier Bern association. Another decision means that the city can once again make a donation of CHF 70,000 for sea rescue in the Mediterranean.

The council also approved additional expenditure for sports clubs, open youth work and the specialist office for migration and racism. The majority of the budget corrections therefore fall within the remit of Councillor Franziska Teuscher (GB) and Mayor Alec von Graffenried (GFL).

The SP/Juso parliamentary group set the tone for the entire financial debate. Together with the other left-wing parties, it ensured that the bourgeois proposals for cuts and rejections had no chance, but also successfully opposed additional spending demands from the Green Alliance and the AL/PdA parliamentary group.

The City Council recommended that voters approve the budget by 43 votes to 23. The vote will take place on November 24, just like the general elections.

In the spotlight of the elections

The Council had already held the fundamental debate on the budget and the task and finance plan on Thursday. The two main camps reiterated their well-known positions.

The centre-right camp with the FDP, SVP, GLP and center criticized the municipal council's financial policy course and warned against squandering taxpayers' money. The red-green camp claimed that despite red figures and growing debts, there was no room for pessimism. Deficit budgets have recently always been followed by financial statements with surpluses.

However, this will not be the case in 2024, as Finance Director Michael Aebersold (SP) announced. This year's budget will be "plus/minus" - and that means a deficit of around CHF 40 million. There is no reason to hope for a miracle in the form of unexpectedly high tax revenues.

SDA