29. 05. 12. - 15:18

Brauner discloses austerity course details

Viennese Social Democratic (SPÖ) Finance Councillor Renate Brauner has revealed how the city government plans to save one billion Euros within the next five years.

Brauner told the Kurier that the wages of Vienna’s public servants would be frozen this year. Automatic salary hikes in the public sector cost the city more than 76 million Euros in 2011. The councillor’s decision to freeze civil servants’ incomes comes just days after an Audit Office (RH) revealed that Austria’s armed forces featured more than 2,000 staff who had no precise tasks or assignments in 2010.

The RH investigation – which is expected to increase the pressure on SPÖ Defence Norbert Darabos – shows that 2,059 army employees were inactive that year. This situation confronted the state with expenses of 66.1 million Euros, according to RH experts. Most of the employees in question have contracts which protect them from being laid off. The Austrian army’s annual budget ranges around 2.1 billion Euros. This figure ranks Austria among the states with the lowest defence expenditure in Europe.

Brauner promised to "save intelligently". She said Vienna would keep investing into the expansion of its U-Bahn underground network despite the force to focus on austerity. Only in March, SPÖ Vienna and its coalition partner, the Green Party, agreed about expanding the U1 line to Therme Wien spa in Favoriten district.

The U1 service currently connects Leopoldau in north-eastern Vienna with Reumann Square in the south. It will operate between Lopoldau and Therme Wien from 2017. Around 600 million Euros will be invested into the five-stop extension in the next few years, according to Brauner.

Greens Vice Mayor Maria Vassilakou said additional park and ride facilities might be set up shortly to avoid a traffic collapse on the outskirts of the city. The city hall opposition of Freedom Party (FPÖ) and People’s Party (ÖVP) nevertheless accuse the coalition – which was formed in 2010 – of acting in disfavour of drivers with its exaggerated focus on public transport.

Wiener Linien, the city’s public transport agency, expects a strong increase of passenger figures in the coming months due to the latest ticket price reform. The price for annual passes for the Viennese network of buses, trams and underground trains dropped from 449 to 365 Euros on 1 May. Other kinds of tickets became more expensive at the same time.

The city’s SPÖ department and the Greens controversially agreed about jacking up a charge colloquially known as U-Bahn tax by 177 per cent. All firms based in Vienna with employees doing 10 hours a week or more must pay two Euros per staff member a week instead of 72 Eurocent since January. All revenues are invested in the improvement and extension of the city’s public transport system.

Speaking to the Kurier, Brauner admitted that the city’s health sector must act more efficiently. She said that healthcare institutions would need to participate half of the envisaged savings of one billion Euros in the next five years. Childcare and Vienna’s kindergartens – which do not charge parents – will not be affected by the upcoming cost reduction measures, Brauner promised. She said that some public service sections would be diminished to create new jobs in the childcare sector.

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