It can’t be easy being in charge of Oberursel’s finances.  After two rounds of spending cuts and tax increases, the town’s budget could budget could be in the black to the tune of around €4.5 million after a sudden windfall of corporate income tax (Gewerbesteuer) and further cuts in the culture department.

That is, it would be if the next higher level of government – the Kreis – had not increased the amount that the town has to pay for their services, including the school, by almost  €11 million for the coming year, leaving with the town with a deficit in 2014 of just over €6 million.

So once again the town called a meeting of its residents to discuss the next round of savings, holding it this year in the Burgwiesenhalle in Bommersheim.  The hall may not have been full – around 160 people turned up – but there were a significant number of children and teenagers present to protest against the planned cuts in funding for the “Jugendtreffs” in Weißkirchen and Stierstadt. [Read more…]