Styria opposition attacks cuts in state budget

Opposition parties have sharply criticised cuts in Styria’s budget, saying structural problems remain unresolved even as the state’s debt continues to rise, ORF reported.

Finance Councillor Willibald Ehrenhöfer of the ÖVP presented the budget in the state parliament on Tuesday. He called for a fundamental review of the state’s spending policy, saying Styria must stop spending money it never had. New debt and rising tax revenue forecasts could no longer conceal structural problems, he said.

Ehrenhöfer called for a review of the state’s responsibilities and spending, including whether tasks could be organised more efficiently and whether overlapping responsibilities between the state, federal government and municipalities could be eliminated. He said administration needed to become simpler, faster and leaner.

He described lower new borrowing as a success despite the rising debt, saying the state had reduced its financing requirement by 430 million euros, from 2.37 billion to 1.94 billion euros.

SPÖ leader Max Lercher said the budget combined rising debt with cuts to public services and offered no plan for business, childcare, healthcare or acute care. He also criticised cuts to folk culture and said associations were being weakened.

Green Party parliamentary group leader Sandra Krautwaschl said the government had failed to deliver structural reforms for a third time, instead cutting services that many people rely on while leaving the main cost drivers untouched. NEOS said the government had accepted the state’s problems and claimed debt had risen by 40 percent during Governor Kunasek’s three years in office. The KPÖ called the budget one of cuts and cancellations that entrenched inequality and placed a heavy burden on residents, municipalities, associations and hospitals.