Budget freeze
In the case of public budgets, budget freezes are restrictions on disposal that prohibit the use of budget commitments that have already been issued and stipulate that budgetary expenditure may not be made.
Intervention in household autonomy
Section 3 (1 ) of the HGrG stipulates that the administration is empowered by the approved budget to make expenses and enter into obligations that are provided for in the budget (authorization to commit). At the same time, however, § 25 HGrG provides that consent to the performance of expenses or to enter into obligations is required if the development of expenses and income (expenses and income for cameralistics ) or liquidity so require. The actual technical term for this budget lock is the “budget lock”, which is regulated in federal and state budget regulations as well as in municipal budget regulations. In § 41 Federal Budget Code states: "If the development of the revenue or expenditure requires it, which can Federal Ministry of Finance after consultation with the federal ministry responsible make it dependent on its consent if obligations or be made spending."
The autonomy according to § 3 HGrG is strongly interfered with by budget freezes, because expenditure can no longer be made, obligations can no longer be entered into or posts can no longer be filled. This is regulated in a similar or even identical manner for the federal level (§ 41 BHO), the state levels (§ 41 LHO NRW) and the municipalities (§ 81 para. 4 GO NRW, § 24 GemHVO NRW). For example, Section 71 (1) of the Brandenburg Municipal Constitution provides: "If the development of income and payments or expenditure and payments requires it, the treasurer must block the use of expenditure or payment approaches and commitment authorizations."
species
Budget freezes can already be provided for in the Budget Act ( Section 24 (3) BHO). Subsequent blocks are made by means of a blocking note in the budget. Depending on the form, a distinction is made between simple and qualified household freezes. A simple budget freeze ( Section 22 BHO) exists if the Federal or State Minister of Finance can decide on its own to lift it. The qualified budget lock should only be imposed in exceptional cases and can only be lifted by the federal or state parliament.
Reasons for a budget freeze can be:
- lack of budgetary clarity (§ 11 HGrG),
- budgetary reasons,
- economic situation or
- Justification of a budget security concept .
Budget freezes are used when the balancing of public budgets is jeopardized by increased expenditure and / or reduced income ( budget gap ).
Content and scope
From an administrative point of view, a budget lock is enforced by a lock note in the budget. It is a temporary ban on budget expenditure or commitment appropriations. A budget freeze can extend to the entire budget (percentage reduction in expenditure), relate to certain areas of expenditure (e.g. investments that have not yet started in the property budget) or be limited to individual budget items. Budget freezes relate to
- expected expenses,
- likely required commitment authorizations and
- Probably required posts.
Statutory or contractual services are not affected by a budget freeze. Interest payments or repayments for municipal loans must therefore be made despite the budget freeze, as well as wage and salary payments for staff or payment obligations entered into in writing from contracts of all kinds within the scope of unavoidable expenses ( mandatory tasks ). In order to take account of the principle of total coverage, one speaks of an expenditure block.
impact
A budget freeze does not solve the problem of insufficient coverage of individual budget titles, but can even exacerbate it. A budget lock has the same effect as funds that are not budgeted. It aims to achieve budget balance . Budget freezes serve as a means of budget consolidation and have an economically contractive effect because investment or consumption expenditure is not undertaken. This means that budget freezes are also a means of austerity policy .
history
The statutory possibility of a budget freeze has been and is used quite frequently at all federal levels. In November 1951 there was a budget freeze at the University of Cologne (a budgetary institution under public law ). An absolute budget freeze in Baden-Württemberg in 1966 restricted the police patrol duty . In order to prevent the risk of economic overheating, the federal government decided in January 1970 on an internal economic stability program with a budget freeze in the federal government. In order to limit the federal government's new borrowing, Federal Finance Minister Hans Matthöfer resorted to the budget freeze in December 1979 - albeit without lasting success - in order to maintain the scope for necessary savings. In October 1994, Baden-Württemberg decided to freeze the budget again. The treasurer of the city of Bonn recently imposed a budget lock in October 2013 in order not to end up in an emergency budget . The state of North Rhine-Westphalia imposed a budget freeze in July 2014 after it had lost the procedure before the VGH Münster for a planned zero round for civil servants with higher salaries; the budget freeze should "as a precautionary measure secure financial leeway".
Repeal
Budget freezes can be imposed for a limited or unlimited period. After the envisaged time limit has expired or an originally unlimited ban has been lifted, the budgetary funds concerned can be freely used again if there has been an improvement in the budget development (Section 30 GemHKVO).
Individual evidence
- ^ Herbert Wiesner, Das Staatliche Budgets-, Kassen- und Accounting , 2012, p. 151.
- ↑ Herbert Wiesner, Das Staatliche Budgets-, Kassen- und Accounting , 2012, p. 141 f.
- ^ Kai von Lewinski, Public Insolvency and State Bankruptcy , 2011, p. 52.
- ^ Rudolf Vierhaus : Biographical Manual of the Members of the German Bundestag 1949-2002 , 2002, p. 542.
- ↑ NRW imposes immediate budget freeze , Generalanzeiger dated July 4, 2014.
