City council approves draft budget for 2026

After already making considerable savings this year and last, the City of Offenbach's financial situation remains extremely tight. Yesterday, the municipal council approved the draft budget for 2026 and the following three years (medium-term planning). City Treasurer Martin Wilhelm summarizes: "The financial framework is becoming ever tighter due to increasing compulsory expenditure, new additional tasks and shrinking reserves. Nevertheless, we have succeeded in continuing to prioritize important projects, for example in the areas of education and care, inner city design, climate protection, infrastructure and the economy, while at the same time keeping the 2026 tax stable. Especially in times of 20 percent inflation over a period of five years, this is a great success." The city councillors will vote on the city treasurer's draft budget and possible adjustments at their December meeting.

The priority for expenditure is the future viability of the city. Schools continue to benefit from the city's highest investments. Around 9.9 million euros from the municipal budget and around 39.9 million euros from the GEO municipal enterprise are available for the renovation of buildings and classrooms. The money will go towards the construction of new elementary school (IGS Lindenfeld, Ernst-Reuter-Schule, Schule Bieber-Nord), the new buildings for Mathildenschule and Geschwister-Scholl-Schule as well as various purchases for the schools. For the construction of the new Emmy-Noether-Gymnasium alone, around 30 million euros in funding will be available next year - construction is expected to begin shortly. An additional 3.6 million euros have been set aside for the expansion of all-day care at elementary school. The city is spending 4.65 million euros on the renovation of the Waldschwimmbad swimming pool on Rosenhöhe, a further 2.42 million euros on the renovation of sports facilities and 3.5 million euros on the new city library in Station Mitte. A total of 3.8 million euros is planned for the renovation of the Wiener Hof. 2.5 million euros will be spent on upgrading buildings for the volunteer fire department and two million euros will be spent on extending the Main embankment in the city center in the coming year. Overall, the improved flood protection is one of the most expensive and important individual projects in the coming years alongside the construction of the high school and the Mitte station as a central future project to strengthen the city center - so far, the costs for the Main dyke in the city center area are estimated at 38.5 million euros by 2028. In total, the city is planning investments of 64.4 million euros in the 2026 financial budget via the core budget and around 44 million euros via Offenbach's Die Grünen Eigenbetrieb.

"The challenge remains that Offenbach remains largely dependent on external grants, in particular funds from the municipal financial equalization system as the largest source of income. These funds fluctuate from year to year and are determined in a complicated calculation model that takes into account how well or badly the major cities in Hesse are doing overall," explains Wilhelm. "In view of this volatility and rising costs, we are therefore also forced to increase our own revenue. The trend in trade tax is very good, despite the ongoing economic downturn. This shows that Offenbach is on the right track. We have stable tax revenues and a record trade tax. Nevertheless, we are clearly feeling the effects of the difficult economic situation, as the KFA funds carry around two and a half times as much weight as trade tax and are therefore hugely important for our budget. If this largest source of income weakens, even the good trade tax cannot fully compensate for this. It is therefore important that we continue on our path and further strengthen our own sources of income in order to become more independent," emphasizes Wilhelm.

He also points out that budget approval was only granted this year because, in addition to significant savings and a job freeze until 2028, the city has also planned for a 300-point increase in property tax revenue from 2027. Even with the planned higher revenue, the city's budget will have to remain on a financially tight rein. There will therefore be no new administrative positions until 2028 that do not refinance themselves through their work. The aim is to keep personnel costs as low as possible. Only 3.2 new posts are planned for 2026, which will only be possible by eliminating other posts. Progressive digitalization is intended to reduce bureaucracy and, in the long term, enable the offices to cope with the increasing workload and task growth by automating processes despite job freezes. With growing tasks and the same number of jobs, the city asks for your understanding that processing may take longer.

In addition, the "flat-rate cuts" instrument approved by the state will be applied again in 2026: According to this, six percent of the blocked funds may only be spent at all if savings of the same amount have been achieved in other budgets as a cover amount.

"Despite all these measures, we are reaching the limits of our ability to act. To ensure that costs in all areas do not get out of hand, we have to continue our austerity course consistently. However, this does not mean that Offenbach can no longer do anything. We just have to set very strict priorities," says Wilhelm, explaining the situation.

For example, the current bus service will be maintained as a minimum service despite rising personnel and material costs, the GBO will continue to invest in new publicly subsidized apartments within the scope of its possibilities and the budget for the repair of roads, footpaths and cycle paths will be increased by one million euros. Half a million euros of this is available for so-called windfall profits. This means that if a road is torn up, for example for the expansion of the electricity grid by ENO GmbH, the city will use this opportunity to renovate the surrounding area at the same time. "Our roads and sidewalks are in considerable need of renovation and we have to make sure that at least the most serious damage and obstacles are removed as a matter of priority," says Wilhelm.

In addition to the personnel, social and youth areas, the city also has to raise more money than before for the two major city festivals (Mainuferfest and Lichterfest) and other events. "The costs for events are rising from year to year. Increasingly stringent requirements for hygiene, fire protection, safety and access protection must be met," explains City Treasurer Wilhelm. In order to increase safety at festivals, the city plans to purchase certified protective elements via Stadtwerke Offenbach's Stadtservice and make them available for events in Offenbach. 270,000 will be made available annually from 2026 for the purchase and logistical costs of transporting and setting up the elements.

Overall, the volume of the income budget will continue to grow: Income is expected to amount to 681.0 million euros (2025: 666.9 million euros) with expenses of 736.4 million euros (2025: 686.5 million euros). The budget is therefore in deficit for the second year in a row: the deficit of 55.4 million euros must be absorbed by the city's reserves. The revenue reserve is expected to shrink to 98 million euros in the coming year. The city's liquid reserves will also continue to fall as a result of the deficit planning. According to current planning, it can be assumed that around 55.2 million euros of free liquidity will still be available to finance the following years at the end of 2026. "In this respect, it is good that we have recently been able to achieve positive annual results, contrary to planning, partly due to better trade tax income and because projects were canceled or will only start later than originally planned. This enabled us to replenish our reserves somewhat. However, we must expect these reserves to be almost exhausted by the end of 2029. This means that we must continue to adhere to our consistent austerity measures so that we can finally head for better times," Wilhelm concludes.