The Hessian Finance Minister Michael Boddenberg (CDU) sees the country "on the way back to normality".

The new debt is expected to drop by 700 million to 120 million euros next year.

"In 2022 we will still have to live with Corona, but the acute crisis will hopefully be over," said the Union politician when he presented the next budget and his medium-term financial planning on Monday.

Ewald Hetrodt

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung in Wiesbaden.

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He reaffirmed the goal of returning to the black by 2024 at the latest, i.e. getting by without new debts.

Boddenberg confirmed a report from this newspaper about the latest meeting of the budget committee.

According to this, the special assets of twelve billion euros set up to economically cope with the pandemic will by far not be exhausted.

"Despite the years of the Corona crisis, we were able to steadily increase the expenditure on internal security," stated Boddenberg.

The budget for the next year is 2.9 billion euros.

Of these, for example, more than 250 additional posts for the police and almost 100 new posts for the judiciary are to be created.

Education also remains a core concern, assured Boddenberg.

About a quarter of the entire state budget is spent on this.

Among other things, this would create more than 220 new positions for schools and 60 new positions for professors.

300 million euros are planned for digitization next year.

The expenditures for environmental policy should amount to 400 million euros.

According to Boddenberg, the investments reach “a new absolute high” at 2.7 billion.

The fact that the municipalities can continue to build on increasing income is thanks to the support from the special fund.

This is the authorization, decided by the black-green coalition against sharp protests by the opposition, to absorb the financial consequences of the pandemic with loans amounting to billions by the end of 2023.

According to the finance minister, a total of almost 300 specific aids for more than 5.9 billion euros have now been initiated.

The expenditures from the special fund for 2022 and 2023 were significantly lower than in the years of the acute crisis, announced Boddenberg.

Compensation through reserves

The country still has to expect significant tax shortfalls until 2023.

A considerable part of this is offset with the reserves saved up in good times.

Of the five billion euros that are earmarked in the special fund to compensate for falling tax revenues as a result of the Corona crisis, only just under two billion euros would be needed.

“The special fund will be reduced accordingly.

Instead of the possible twelve, we will hopefully only actually need just under nine billion euros, ”said Boddenberg.

Hesse is the only federal state that will start repayments this year.

The planned term is 30 years.

In view of the good budgets of the past few years, Corona is in a position to shoulder and the massive investments made during the crisis have helped to keep the country stable.

The investments of the special fund paid off not only in the best possible health protection, but now also in an overall relatively good and robust economic situation.

SPD: discontinued model black-green

Marius Weiß, deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, said that the repayment of the debts would massively limit the scope of future state governments.

Minister Boddenberg will then almost certainly no longer be in office.

“The financial policy horizon of the current state government ends with the next state election.

This form of denial of the future makes black and green a political obsolete model, ”said Weiß.

The FDP parliamentary group in the state parliament accused Boddenberg of "sleight of hand".

"The minister has announced the so-called black zero in the state budget for 2024, but has kept silent about the shadow budget called special assets with which he can go into debt unchecked," said the Liberals' budget spokeswoman Marion Schardt-Sauer.

The politician called for greater efforts to reduce debt and keep borrowing low. The left demanded exactly the opposite. Jan Schalauske, chairman of the state party and financial policy spokesman for the parliamentary group, complained that cuts are already being made wherever possible in order to be able to comply with the debt brake again in 2024. This affects the municipalities in particular.