Basel-Stadt expects red numbers for 2025

The fat years are over – at least if you take the canton’s budget for the coming year as a reference. For the first time in a long time, Basel-Stadt could slip into the red next year. Even if the expected minus, which according to current calculations is likely to be in the one or almost double-digit million range, and is therefore in the per thousand range with a total expenditure of 5.2 billion francs – is “a black and red zero”, as Finance Director Tanja Soland described it. “But you can see that it is getting tighter. The structural surplus is gone.”

The fact that Basel-Stadt slipped into the red is, to put it bluntly, due to the Eurovision Song Contest: the 34 million budgeted for it overturned the budget, which originally envisaged a slight plus. In addition, there are now additional expenses that the Basel parliament decided on, such as additional positions at the Basel public prosecutor’s office. The Finance Commission submitted this request to the public prosecutor’s office with a view to the large Pendenzenberg. In total, the commission applied for eight new positions, which amounts to around 1.75 million.

Location package ensures early discussions

The question of whether and to what extent the law enforcement authority should be increased caused a lengthy interim debate. The SP only wanted to approve additional positions for youth advocates. Basta rejected the increase entirely.

The budget debate also gave a small foretaste of the debate over the additional revenue expected from the OECD tax reform. The minimum rate of 15 percent for large, internationally active companies is expected to bring around 300 additional million francs into the canton’s coffers. The plan is for these funds to flow into a fund to strengthen the attractiveness of the location, with the majority of it going towards promoting innovation.

“Growth is the problem, not the ESC”

And although the location package, one of the most important items of the coming legislature, is still in preliminary discussions and has nothing to do with the 2025 budget, a debate broke out yesterday: “So the general public would actually receive subsidies for the big Basel companies Financing companies,” criticized Basta councilor Patrizia Bernasconi. Luca Urgese (FDP) countered: “The competition is no longer about taxes, but about subsidies. This puts the Basel location at massive risk.”

Even if all parties ultimately supported the budget, there was clear criticism of the financial policy from the middle class: “The canton of Basel-Stadt is growing endlessly,” complained SVP President Pascal Messerli. “In the past four years, the administration has added almost 1,000 jobs. That’s the problem, not the ESC.”

So far mostly better than budgeted

Daniel Seiler from the FDP also said: “The will to reduce anything is not apparent. The opposite is the case: more and more tasks are being delegated to the administration.” The construction projects would cause him great concern, such as the additional costs of renovating the Spiegelhof or building the new Natural History Museum. “I wonder whether we will be able to finance all these expenses in the future if we continue like this,” says Seiler. “We are in a position to turn things around if necessary,” said Finance Director Soland. She assumes that the canton will have balanced accounts in the future.

In recent years, the canton has usually performed significantly better than forecast. The last time the canton budgeted a deficit was in 2015. Instead of a deficit of 31 million francs, the result was a surplus of 432 million francs. And the predicted black zero four years ago also turned out to be around 300 million francs too pessimistic.