Press releases

• The draft budget for 2025 closes with an extraordinarily high deficit of around 74 million euros. The budget can only be approved through the use of a global reduction in expenditure of up to 26 million euros.
• The decline in trade tax income and key allocations are having a negative impact on planning, but the draft once again refrains from raising taxes to consolidate the budget.
• The new assessment rate for property tax B is aimed solely at achieving revenue neutrality for the municipal budget when implementing the property tax reform.

City Treasurer Annekathrin Grehling presented the draft budget for the years 2025 to 2028 to the Council on December 4.

The draft budget for 2025 closes with an extraordinarily high deficit of around 74 million euros. "Unfortunately, a high deficit is currently the norm in the municipal family in North Rhine-Westphalia. Cash loans are increasing and equity is shrinking," explains Grehling.

The current planning was made more difficult by the fact that the city of Aachen received almost 15 million euros less in key allocations from the state. "At the same time, the positive trend in trade tax has not continued. At the time the draft budget was submitted, the expected trade tax revenue was still at a very high level, but more than 18 million euros below expectations," explains Grehling. "As a result, we naturally had to reduce our revenue expectations for the planning accordingly," the city treasurer continued.

However, the budget can still be approved. "This is not a matter of course in these tense times and can only be achieved through the use of a global reduction in expenditure of up to 26 million euros per year," says the city treasurer. At the same time, Grehling warns: "This savings target must also be achieved during the year and this will not be easy in view of the major challenges we are facing"

More than 1.3 billion expenses and over 232 million euros will be available in 2025 alone to tackle the wide range of tasks and planned investment projects. "Despite all the uncertainties, the 2025 draft budget has also succeeded in driving forward such forward-looking topics as climate protection and the mobility transition and preparing the financial ground for them," reports Lord Mayor Sibylle Keupen. "The budget of the City of Aachen has earmarked more than 134 million euros for corresponding measures in the years 2025 to 2028," continues the Lord Mayor.

At the same time, the budget safeguards the existing service structures and refrains from raising taxes. "The budget deliberately refrains from increasing the assessment rates for trade tax in order to avoid further burdening the local economy," said the mayor. "The new assessment rate for property tax B is aimed solely at revenue neutrality for the municipal budget when implementing the property tax reform. The aim is not to generate additional revenue at the expense of the citizens of this city. Nevertheless, it will be unavoidable that individuals may be burdened more as a result of the property tax reform," explains Grehling.

Next step: consultations with politicians

Before the final resolution is passed by the Aachen City Council on March 12, 2025, discussions will take place in the parliamentary groups and subsequently in the district councils, the specialist committees and the finance committee.

Draft budget available online

The Treasurer's budget speech and the draft budget for 2025 presented for discussion can now also be viewed at aachen.de/haushalt. The city also offers the opportunity to browse through the underlying figures in a user-friendly way using the interactive budget.