New law: Schwyz communities will be financially relieved

class=”sc-29f61514-0 icZBHN”>

All municipalities can never be maximally satisfied, but the new law on financial equalization brings significant improvements for all of them, said the spokesperson of the State Economic Commission (Stawiko). Most municipalities received more financial flexibility. Tax differences could be reduced. After the unbundling of tasks, the canton will reduce the burden on the community by a net amount of 81.5 million francs.

After intensive debate, the canton council approved the government council’s proposal with 81 votes against 10. The SVP’s motion to reject the proposal had previously been rejected with 66 votes in favor and 26 against. According to several speakers, the majority of the House of Representatives was of the opinion that rejecting the bill would not yield a better result.

The reform, which has been in the works for several years, regulates the financial flows between the canton and the municipalities. It consists of resource balancing and load balancing.

Resource equalization removes money from financially strong municipalities with above-average tax capacity and distributes this money to communities with below-average tax capacity. “The municipalities and districts benefit from significant relief,” said the FDP spokesperson. This makes tax reductions possible in municipalities and districts. This proposal also maintains the fiscal attractiveness of the canton.

The speakers from Mitte and GLP also spoke positively about the financial equalization reform: the proposal was “successful”, the result “great”.

The assessment of the SVP group was different. “Due to its errors, this misleading package does not provide large-scale and sustainable tax relief for high-tax communities”: this is what the SVP faction leader was quoted in the local press. The community of Schübelbach was cited as an example of this argument.

Criticism also came from the SP faction. While she praised the new financial equalization as a clear improvement over the current situation, she wanted to change the template in a number of areas. The left demanded greater equalization of resources, greater equalization of social security contributions and improvements in the calculation of tax equalization. However, she clearly failed with her applications.

In the final vote, the SP faction voted in favor of the reorganization of financial equalization requested by the government council, while only ten parliamentarians in the SVP faction voted against it. The proposal is subject to an optional referendum.

(SDA)

Source:Blick