The Hessian Minister President Boris Rhein (CDU) criticized how recipient states spend money in the federal budget transfers.
“It can’t be that we borrow while other states fund free day‑care, tree‑planting campaigns or ever‑new additional programmes” Rhein said to the “FAZ”. He was referring in particular to fee‑free day‑cares in Rhineland‑Palatinate and Berlin.
Rhein warned that “solidarity” should not overburden the donor states. “If Hesse, as a strong state, has to take on debt to support other states with almost four billion euros a year in the inter‑state financial equalization, something fundamentally is wrong”.
Hesse will accrue 1.7 billion euros of debt this year and will pay four billion euros into the equalization.