Fun Facts occasion on 10 August in Halle: A Greenpeace research reveals how Halle would profit from a wealth tax · Leipziger Zeitung

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No one will be capable of say in future that they didn’t know. That they lacked the information concerning the 2026 elections. Because the information are on the market, stay and obtainable to anybody who’s even barely interested in their very own actuality. And all offered with a contact of humour, too. Because that’s precisely what the ‘Fun Facts’ programme has been doing for a while now, with enthusiasm and good humour. But as there are actually just a few quite essential elections developing within the east, ‘Fun Facts’ is touring the nation and will likely be stopping off in Halle (on the Saale) right now, Monday 10 August.

And it’s tackling a subject that must also give the individuals of Leipzig trigger for concern. Because the ‘Fun Facts’ occasion, hosted by Sebastian Krumbiegel, is all about debt. And the extremely contentious problem of the wealth tax.

Halle’s monetary issues

A focused tax on massive fortunes of 100 million euros or extra may considerably enhance the monetary scenario in Halle (Saale). This is proven by a brand new research by the Forum for Ecological and Social Market Economy, commissioned by Greenpeace. As is at the moment the case in lots of different native authorities, the town’s strained monetary scenario is holding again pressing funding in faculties, native transport, roads and local weather adaptation.

According to a mannequin calculation, a wealth tax based mostly on Greenpeace’s tax idea may generate round 68 million euros in further annual income for Halle. This would, in concept, offset slightly below half of the funds deficit anticipated for 2026.

The Greenpeace research on the funds of the town of Halle.

“Halle illustrates what municipal financial hardship means in everyday life: school refurbishments are being postponed, bus and tram services are being cut back, and investments in heat protection and climate adaptation cannot be made,” says Barbara Happe, Greenpeace spokesperson for tax justice.

“A tax on very large fortunes could provide Halle with the necessary funds to renovate schools, make transport future-proof and better protect the city against extreme weather. When local authorities can reliably fulfil their responsibilities, people’s trust in democracy also grows.”

The new case research on Halle expands on the Greenpeace study
revealed in June on the financial crisis facing local authorities in Germany.
The tax proposal envisages a wealth tax of two per cent on web belongings exceeding 100 million euros. It would have an effect on slightly below 5,000 households throughout Germany. As a state tax, the wealth tax would initially move to the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The mannequin calculation takes into consideration each the monetary equalisation between the federal states and the municipal monetary equalisation scheme.

Halle and Leipzig within the debt lure

Halle is forecasting a funds deficit of round 138.2 million euros for 2026. The funding backlog is especially evident on the Südstadt main college: the refurbishment, estimated at 17.4 million euros, has already been postponed a number of occasions. Even after assessing simply half of the roads, greater than 100 million euros are required for the renewal of the street community.

Despite cutbacks to move companies, Hallesche Verkehrs-AG is forecasting a deficit of round 31 million euros for 2026. Added to this are essential investments in heatwave and flood safety.

By the tip of 2025, Halle was in debt to the tune of 811 million euros, which amounted to over 3,500 euros per inhabitant.

Leipzig is now in a scenario not significantly better than Halle’s, going through an annual deficit of round 300 million euros. Per capita debt, which had beforehand been decreased with nice problem over a few years, now stands at round 1,800 euros per inhabitant. And it is going to proceed to rise within the coming years until federal policymakers handle to place the German tax system again on observe, after years wherein taxes – notably for the wealthy and rich – had been reduce or, as within the case of the wealth tax, suspended.

This is why, alongside ‘Fun Facts’
, there may be additionally the ‘Vergnügt’
marketing campaign, which advocates for the reinstatement of the wealth tax in Germany, which was suspended in 1997 by the then Kohl authorities. But not as a result of levying a tax on massive fortunes could be unfair and even unconstitutional.

Wikipedia states
: “In 1995, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that a difference in the tax burden between real estate and other assets under the wealth tax was incompatible with the principle of equality (Article 3(1) of the Basic Law).” The most important problem, due to this fact, was that several types of wealth – monetary belongings and property – had been taxed otherwise or in no way.

With the pursuits of their rich voter base in thoughts, the CDU and FDP shelved the tax, and even subsequent federal governments lacked the nerve to reintroduce it – even in a revised type. The similar applies to the various exemptions from inheritance tax, which in apply enable notably massive fortunes to be handed on virtually tax-free, which means that the wealth of the highest 1 per cent continues to develop, while the federal, state and native governments sink ever deeper into debt.

Greenpeace group on the ‘Fun Facts’ occasion within the Turm within the night

On 10 August, Greenpeace will likely be presenting the brand new case research on the ‘Fun Facts’ event in Halle, hosted by Sebastian Krumbiegel. Visitors can write on symbolic million-mark notes what the town urgently wants more cash for. The collected needs for the long run are to be handed over to Lord Mayor Alexander Vogt.