Parliament votes to keep tax threshold at 82%

Much as expected, the cantonal parliament voted by 49 to 17 to keep the tax threshold at 82% in a session held yesterday, preferring instead to cut costs in a number of ways.
 
It was actually the SP (Social Democratic) party and the ALG (Alternative Green) party which proposed the tax threshold should be increased from 82% to 85%. This would have enabled the canton to reap in a further CHF 21 million, thinking this slight increase would be all that was necessary to bring cantonal finances under control.
 
Speaking on behalf of the ALG party, Andreas Hürlimann said he did not think an increase of 3% would have led to lots of wealthy individuals leaving the canton, believing it would have remained fiscally attractive even with a threshold of 85%.
 
The more centrist parties argued that among those areas where costs had to be cut were in administration, not least Pirmin Frei of the CVP party.
 
In fact Manuel Brandenberg of the SVP party thought it might even be better to reduce the tax threshold by 2% to 80%, thinking this would send out the right signal to companies, as “now was the time to provide them with even greater inducements”.
 
All parties agreed that the current situation with regard to this year’s budget was dramatic, noting that, had the canton not dipped into a reserve fund to the tune of CHF 140 million, the deficit would be as high as CHF 176 million. Cuts amounting to CHF 2,129,700 were agreed on, affecting a range of projects, CHF 5 million of which was slashed from administration costs. Now a hole amounting to just CHF 26.3 million needed to be plugged.
Not that the canton can continue to resort to such reserve funds. From an original amount of CHF 340 million, none will be left by 2018.
 
In a separate move, the ALG also thought it would be good for the cantonal parliament to set an example to the general public by no longer organising outings, holding fewer sessions and asking members to pay for their lunch between debates, amounting to savings of CHF 50,000. However, as Heini Schmid of the CVP party pointed out, lunching together was an important aspect in all parliamentarians interrelating with each other, and the idea was duly rejected by 37 votes to 30.