Kosa Initiative
The National Bank Profits Initiative for the AHV (Kosa Initiative) was a Swiss popular initiative that was rejected on September 24, 2006.
The Kosa initiative, which derives its name from a committee for a safe AHV (Kosa), was mainly supported by the SP . It demanded that the annual net profit of the Swiss National Bank , for example from gold sales, minus one billion francs for the cantons, go to the AHV in the future in order to secure its operation.
text
The popular initiative had the following wording:
- I.
The Federal Constitution of April 18, 1999 is amended as follows:
Art. 99, Paragraph 44
The net profit of the National Bank goes to the compensation fund for old-age and survivors' insurance. A share of the cantons of one billion francs per year remains reserved; the law can adjust this amount to the development of prices.
- II
The transitional provisions of the Federal Constitution are supplemented as follows:
Art. 197 (new)
1. Transitional provision to Art. 99 Paragraph 4 (new)
Article 99 Paragraph 4 must come into force two years after its adoption by the people and the cantons at the latest. If the necessary legislative amendments have not been made by this point in time, the Federal Council shall issue implementing provisions.
The potential consequences of the initiative - arguments
In the debate surrounding the Kosa initiative, supporters and opponents made the following arguments:
- advantages
- In deficit AHV , more money is talked about.
- Pure redistribution of financial resources downwards. Without the generation of new money, the purchasing power of the insured will be strengthened with internal growth as a result and thus again higher tax revenues. (The victims would be the major private shareholders of the Swiss National Bank, who, however, also have a higher savings rate than the majority of the insured).
- disadvantage
- Cantons receive less money and might have to raise taxes.
- The National Bank is losing its independence as political pressure arises for a particular monetary policy. However, monetary policy should mainly be concerned with monetary stability.
- The pressure to rehabilitate the high deficit AHV is disappearing.
- Pure redistribution of financial resources, as no new money is generated. So a pseudo solution.
- If the initiative had been accepted, the federal government would not have received any more money from its 55 percent share and the cantons would have received around 666 million less than today. Extrapolated the AHV, however, 1.210 billion francs more.
Rejection of the initiative
The Federal Council and Parliament were against the initiative because they believe that it would not be able to secure the AHV funding in the long term. They also said that they only distribute funds and withdraw billions of dollars in revenue from the federal government and cantons, even though the public sector only owns 55 percent of the shares. In addition, it jeopardized the independence of the National Bank by exposing its monetary and currency policy to the influence of social policy and thus weakening confidence in the Swiss franc.
Since the initiative was rejected on September 24, 2006 with 58.3 percent of the votes against 41.7 percent of the supporters, a resolution of the parliament of 2005 came into effect, which was intended as an indirect counter-proposal to the initiative: the federal share of the gold proceeds of the National Bank , around 7 billion francs, will be allocated to the AHV fund. If the initiative had been accepted, however, under current law, this money would have been used to reduce federal debt.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.parlament.ch/d/Medienmitteilungen/Seiten/mm_2005-10-25_999_02.aspx (accessed June 7, 2008)
- ↑ http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/pore/vi/vis303.html
- ↑ http://www.cvpluzern.ch/mitteilungen/060904dv.php (accessed June 7, 2008)
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed June 7, 2008)
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated August 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed June 7, 2008)
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated August 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed June 7, 2008)
