Viennese Councillor David Ellensohn has claimed Austria’s financial difficulties could be solved in one step if the People’s Party (ÖVP) gave up its blockade against a tax on assets.
The Green Party official told the Kurier today (Thurs) that the state could rake in 10 billion Euros a year by charging its richest residents. The Social Democrats (SPÖ), the Labour Chamber (AK) and the Federal Trade Union (ÖGB) are also in support of a tax on assets. The SPÖ – which forms a federal government coalition with the ÖVP – also agree with the Greens that the inheritance tax should be reintroduced. The Social Democrats suggested that inheritances worth 300,000 Euros or less should not be affected if the measure was implemented again after being abolished in 2008 due to high administrative costs and comparably low revenues.
ÖVP Finance Minister Maria Fekter warned some weeks ago that Austria’s nine provinces must save 800 million Euros a year by 2017. She called the SPÖ’s tax on assets model as a “sniffing tax” while the Federation of Industries (IV) and the Economy Chamber (WKO) claimed any kind of new tax would negatively affect Austria’s reputation as a business location. Ellensohn said today the ÖVP “prefers to protect the super-rich”. He said the conservative party wanted the middle class to pay for the costs of the crisis.
Ellensohn underlined that his party would not oppose attempts to reduce the spending of the city of Vienna if this happened in a sensible way. The left-winger – whose party has cooperated with the SPÖ in the city hall parliament since 2010 – claimed Vienna could do with forking out 12.5 million Euros a year on ads and insertions a year, half as much as the capital’s government and authorities spent that way in recent years. Ellensohn also said there was an enormous potential to make savings as far as the city’s district offices were concerned. The Green Party councillor identified the working procedure of the 13th and 14th district as a good example. The districts, which are situated in the west of the city, share one office building.
Ellensohn put into question whether every district chief needed two deputies “who earn 4,000 Euros per capita before tax”. He also told the Kurier that the city coalition must check whether it made sense to subsidise various associations to the current extent. Ellensohn suggested examining their achievements in society to determine whether the full amount of financial support was still justified. He explained that the volume of subsidies was agreed on in the 1970s “without any kind of evaluation ever since”.
Ellensohn made clear that former public servants working for the city of Vienna who were now receiving comparably small pensions must not fear a decline – despite criticism by the Federal Audit Office (RH). The institution appealed to the city to modernise its pension system to lower costs. Ellensohn said people with high pensions may be affected by future reforms but also underlined that those who received low amounts must not be concerned about cutbacks despite the crisis.
Ellensohn’s plea for more efficient district structures comes shortly after Manfred Juraczka, the designated head of the ÖVP’s Viennese department, said he wanted to position his party as a constructive and innovative opposition movement. Speaking to Die Presse about the right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ), Juraczka said: “The FPÖ poses the right questions but it has no answers.”
Juraczka said the ÖVP Vienna wanted to create three main areas where drivers must pay for parking their cars. SPÖ and Greens controversially agreed on raising the price for parking tickets from March. Juraczka suggested to reform the system to ensure that the number of cars declined the closer one got to the city centre as experts feared a collapse of individual traffic due to the soaring number of motorists heading for parking spots in the heart of the capital.
Juraczka – who is set to become the new head of the ÖVP’s Viennese branch later this month – also called for an improvement of the city’s train service as the expansion of the U1 underground line towards the south of Vienna could occur later than planned due to financial issues. The conservative politician revealed details of his agenda after having launched a series of attacks at the SPÖ-Green Party coalition. Referring to rising tap water supply and garbage disposal service fees, Juraczka said: “Upping prices by 70 per cent is a rip-off, not a concept.”
