News

27.04.2023 - In 1922, agricultural vehicles were exempted from vehicle tax in order to promote the mechanisation of farming. The goal has been achieved for decades; the tax benefit lives on. In the spring of 2023, the Federal Court of Auditors had once again "ultimatively" called on the Minister of Finance to actually implement the recommendations from the 2019 FiFo evaluation of this 475-million-euro per year subsidy - Spiegel reported, among others. Now Michael Thöne explains on Bavarian television that the abolition of this futile subsidy paves the way for a more modern, sustainable approach to supporting our agriculture.

25.04.2023 - India is witnessing one of the largest urban growth spurts in human history. Since 1970, the subcontinent's urban population has increased almost fivefold. Today's 500 million urban inhabitants are expected to be augmented by another 400 million by 2050. Conventional municipal finances are not up to this dynamic. At the Urban CoP Launch Conference of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, Michael Thöne presents international good practice in urban finance. In addition to strong own revenues in user charges, new local taxes and green bonds, there is also a need for reliable vertical tax shares and fiscal equalisation transfers to cope with India's rapid urban growth.

11.04.2023 - How does government meet growing demands with, at best, unchanged resources? The most important task here is to increase the efficiency of government performance. The international Handbook on Public Sector Efficiency, now appearing with the renowned publisher Edward Elgar, covers the entire scope of this dynamic research field. The handbook is aimed at researchers, practitioners and policy-makers who want to understand and improve value for money in the public sector. In his chapter, Michael Thöne explains the central function of high and increasing quality of public finances.

05.04.2023 - The Saxon state parliament is debating a proposed bill to amend the constitution and establish a "special fund for social balance". In the expert hearing of the Committee on Constitution and Law, Democracy, Europe and Equality, Michael Thöne explains why this proposal would rather aggravate the generation conflict instead of moderating it. Here, the unspecified social consequences of possible crises are to be met with 5 billion euros of additional debt. Such a low-threshold ancillary budget would not only not contribute anything to the major generational tasks of climate, demography, digitalisation and infrastructure. What is more, the present generation would - once again - seek to cushion its present problems with a lot of borrowed money. This would mean one more burden that would be placed on the young and future generations. Watch the livestream of the hearing.

20.03.2023 - For almost 100 years, the transdisciplinary Arbeitsgemeinschaft für wirtschaftliche Verwaltung e.V. (AWV) has been helping the government and the economy to successfully cope with the demands of continuous changes in tasks and technology in the public sector. With the AWV working group "Public Finances and Sustainability", Michael Thöne discussed the options and problems of linking the German sustainability goals more visibly and authoritatively with the federal budget. In addition to institutional and compliance issues, the focus is on the growing shortage of skilled personnel, as better and more sustainable management of public expenditures must remain readily implementable even with fewer staff.