"Krone" commentary

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Taking stock for the "Krone": Chief Economist Georg Wailand(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

The signals for an imminent coalition are "green", with the urgent budget agreement to be reached first. Fine, fine that it seems to be working out after all. But the "how" is all the more important. All analyses show that Austria has a spending problem. It is an outrage how loosely taxpayers' money has been and continues to be spent. Billions in subsidies have not fulfilled their purpose, but have nevertheless flowed, to name just one example.

Where does all this money come from? Well, from us taxpayers, of course. Here's an example from a disgruntled reader: the good man has been working impeccably at a large company for around two decades and has now been rewarded with a nice pay rise of around 600 euros. However, the joy of this improvement soon faded: previously he received a gross salary of 6522.25, leaving him with a net salary of 3972.29. After the increase, it looks like this: Gross pay rose to 7157.98 euros - and what did he have left net? 4300.35 euros.

In plain language: Of the gross increase of 635.73 euros, he was left with 328.06 euros net. In other words, not more than half. Not to mention the company's expenses, thanks to the "non-wage labor costs", that's a frightening amount.

Therefore: budget restructuring starts on the expenditure side. And not with new burdens!