State budget
The state budget is the highest level of aggregation of a public budget and includes all government revenues and government expenditures of a state . The concept of the state budget has moved into the focus of political and public discussion due to state bankruptcies and current state crises.
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General
While national budgets at international level and in Germany are predominantly still set up in a cameralist manner , the double-entry method is also advancing in the case of state subdivisions ( federal states , cantons ) . In order to understand the state budget, it is necessary to take a closer look at its composition. The example of Germany can also illustrate the international situation of state budgets, because the provisions on which state budgets are based are largely homogeneous internationally.
In federal states, the financial responsibility of the state and the federal states and local authorities is separated. In the former GDR, which was organized as a central state, the state budget also included the budgets of the districts and local authorities. See state budget (GDR) .
Composition of the state budget
Every state budget is made up of state revenues and expenditures as budget-relevant state activities. The terms state income and expenditure are mentioned in Article 110 of the Basic Law in connection with the compensation requirement , but are not defined; The BHO also lacks a legal definition . In § 8 BHO and other provisions, it assumes that the terms are generally known. Government revenues arise in particular from the cash-effective collection of taxes (domestic reference) as well as interest from investments (domestic and international reference) or foreign exchange (foreign). Expenses have to be made for investments (federal highways, public buildings), social purposes (transfer payments of all kinds), education, national defense, interest and repayment of borrowings. The state budget thus consists exclusively of flow variables. Inventories such as government assets and government debts are determined separately.
Budget balance
In the case of a balanced state budget, the state income is the same as the state expenditure , it applies
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hence the budget balance is “zero”; Macro-economically, investments correspond to private saving . Government revenue must not include any new borrowing , but government spending must take account of debt servicing. In this context, the constitutional compensation requirement of Article 110.1 of the Basic Law, according to which “the budget is to be balanced in terms of income and expenditure”, must be observed . The compensation requirement is also repeated in § 8 BHO. Because of the very broad terms of income and expenditure in the BHO, the constitutional compensation requirement is met even with deficit spending or surplus saving , so that the compensation requirement means a purely formal compensation. An unbalanced budget would be an unconstitutional and therefore ineffective law (see budget balance and budget principles ). According to Section 25 (1) BHO, the budget balance is the "difference between the income actually received (actual income) and the expenditure actually made (actual expenditure)". If the income is higher than all expenditure, there is a positive budget balance and there is talk of a surplus in the state budget. A government deficit arises when income is lower than government expenditure (including interest and repayment):
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The primary balance indicates what the state budget would look like if there were no interest payments on national debt and no changes in assets (debt repayments, privatization proceeds). The administrative balance (net balance) includes the interest expense of the respective national budget. If the administrative balance is negative, then government spending is higher than revenue, and there is a government deficit. This national deficit corresponds to the net borrowing , because new borrowing must be borrowed in the amount of the deficit in order to achieve a formally balanced budget. Conversely, we speak of an excess.
A constitutionally anchored debt brake has existed in Germany since August 2009 . According to this regulation, the structural, i.e. non-cyclical budget deficit of the federal government should amount to a maximum of 0.35% of gross domestic product (GDP). For the federal states, net borrowing is completely prohibited. Exceptions are allowed in the event of natural disasters or severe recessions. A transitional regulation in Art. 143d (1) GG provides for the first-time application of the new regulations in Art. 109 and Art. 115 GG for the 2011 budget year. Compliance with the 0.35% limit is mandatory for the federal government from 2016; the federal states' ban on net borrowing will come into force in 2020. At EU level, the budget deficit must not exceed 3% of GDP. These requirements thus limit the new state debt to a certain percentage of the generated GDP. From 2020, the clear regulation in Article 109.3 of the Basic Law applies , according to which the budgets of the federal and state governments are to be balanced in principle without income from loans.
State assets and public debt
The state property is the totality of movable and immovable property belonging to the state. This includes things in common use (infrastructure such as state roads, motorways, waterways), financial assets (participation in state-owned companies , state claims such as state ownership of government bonds from foreign states), administrative assets (official buildings) and undeveloped areas (state forest). National debts are the liabilities of a state towards domestic and foreign ( foreign debt ) creditors . The net worth is obtained when the state debt is deducted from the state assets. Since the value of the net worth of a public debtor consists largely of unmarketable assets, it is impossible to determine its net worth (already due to the valuation). The determination of the residual value of net worth is therefore only of secondary importance at the state level and should be assessed with caution.
State liability
Takes a state in favor of a state enterprise or other States, the guarantee in the form of a guarantee / warranty for granted these loans, so do not proposing this in (cameral) state budget down first. The double is contingent liabilities . These are to be noted “under the balance sheet” ( Section 251 in conjunction with Section 268 (7 ) HGB ). “Under the balance sheet” means that they are not part of the balance sheet total and therefore not part of the balance sheet, but must be listed below. As a result, they do not belong to the liabilities and therefore do not reduce the equity ratio or net worth in arithmetical terms. In the case of state budgets, they are mentioned in the notes to the budget. State liability is based on the assumption that the actual borrower (state company or another state) will settle their debts . Only if this does not happen (so-called surety or guarantee case) does the assumed state liability become a state liability through the interest and repayment payments to be made by the liable state.
According to the non-assistance clause anchored in Art. 125 TFEU , according to which neither the Union nor the member states are liable for the obligations of a member state, automatic state liability of a member state is expressly excluded. In the event of over-indebtedness of a member state, there are then three options: drastic fiscal policy budget consolidation , financial aid from other members (e.g. through state liability) or national bankruptcy. The TFEU remains indifferent here, because it fluctuates between the emphasis on personal responsibility ( Art. 125 TFEU) and the idea of solidarity ( Art. 122 TFEU).
Contingent liabilities are not a specialty for states, however, because the export risks covered by the state under export credit insurance are also recorded as state contingent liabilities. As part of the so-called authorization procedure, the total amount covered by the state export credit insurance is set annually in the federal budget in Germany . Up to a certain amount, Euler Hermes, as a so-called mandateur, is allowed to undertake coverage autonomously; in addition, an “Interministerial Committee for Export Guarantees (IMA)” has to decide. Since the client works on behalf of and for the account of the state, the coverage must be taken into account as a contingent liability in the federal budget.
Other contingent liabilities arising from the fact that countries in the euro area in particular, guarantees / warranties for financial institutions during the financial crisis from 2007 have taken over. The accumulated state contingent liabilities from guarantees to the banking sector are in many countries in the euro area at a significantly higher level and could rise even further, so that the agreed higher upper limits would be reached or even exceeded. The contingent liabilities that have arisen or may arise in connection with the mechanism to deal with the European sovereign debt crisis also include cross-border obligations such as the guarantees provided under the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) of the euro rescue package have been and will be made available. Since these guarantees had to be assumed in favor of highly indebted EU member states , the use of these guarantees is associated with a high probability and would require the formation of provisions in the double . Since these contingent liabilities are not immediately visible in the state budget, they are known as shadow debt.
statistics
In terms of revenue, the US has the largest national budget with US $ 2.424 trillion , followed by Japan (US $ 1.563 trillion), Germany (US $ 1.304 trillion), France (US $ 1.137 trillion) and Great Britain ( US $ 929.4 billion ) $). This ranking is put into perspective when one compares the national debt. With US $ 12.24 trillion, Japan (783% of government revenue) is ahead, followed by the USA (US $ 15 trillion in debt or 618% of government revenue), Germany (US $ 2.67 trillion or 205%), France ( US $ 2.098 trillion; 184%) and Great Britain (US $ 1.588 trillion; 171%). It would take Japan just under eight years to repay all of its national debt from its government revenue (excluding interest). The state would then not be able to use the income for other purposes, and it would have to flow in at least the same amount every year. Germany would need 2 years. So it is not the absolute debt level that plays a role in the discussion, but rather the comparison with comparative figures such as government revenue or GDP. This risk is also confirmed when comparing national debt with GDP, because here, too, Japan tops the list (see list of countries by national debt ratio ).
See also
literature
- Hans Rühle , Hans-Joachim Veen (Ed.): Growing state budgets. An international comparison of the causes, consequences and limitation possibilities (= studies on politics . Vol. 1). Verlag Bonn Aktuell, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-87959-102-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Helmut Reichel: On the deficit and surplus in the central state budget , 1974, p. 90.
- ↑ Helmut Reichel, On Deficit and Surplus in the Central State Budget , 1974, p. 124.
- ↑ Scientific Advisory Board at BMWI: Over- indebtedness and state insolvency in the European Union ( Memento of the original of December 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 983 kB), November 2010, p. 20.
- ↑ Monthly Report of the ECB, Analysis of Public Debt Sustainability in the Euro Area , April 2012, p. 72.
- ↑ World in numbers country comparison .
