Bad kissingen: this is how corona hurts the city
2020 will be a pretty bitter year for bad kissingen as a business location. How bitterly, that can be printed out now already in numbers. But its frightening effect is probably not yet final. Depending on further developments, there is probably still room for improvement. Which can estimate city and staatsbad gmbh now already, sounds however actually already negatively enough.
Mayor dirk vogel publicly presented data on this in the city council on wednesday, which must have already been the subject of non-public discussion there in july, at least in part. The seriousness of the situation is already apparent when looking at the amounts that the city will have to pay this year to compensate for the deficit of the state baths company, which is basically necessary every year.
As vogel explained, the city council on 22. July non-public decision to convert 590,000 euros of above-budget expenditure, which the city had previously approved as a loan to maintain the liquidity of staatsbad gmbh, into a direct loss subsidy". I guess that means that by now there is no hope of seeing the money again any time soon. In addition, there is a further loss subsidy of 400,000 euros, which is also an unbudgeted expense for the city.
The bottom line is that the city is increasing its budgeted loss subsidy for the state swimming pool company from the usual 1.06 million euros for the year due to its 53 percent share of the company by a total of 990000 euros to 2.05 million euros. The free state also provides additional money to cover the deficit of the state-owned swimming pool company in line with its share, which is now only 47 percent.
Reference to aid
As far as the foreseeable business tax losses are concerned, the city can count on state aid. In this area, the town hall expects to make a contribution of 120,000 euros in 2020. If the free state and the federal government were not prepared to compensate for losses in this area, the loss here would certainly be higher.
Business tax is not the only source of city revenue that is expected to be lower this year. In terms of the city's share of income tax, which is budgeted at 11.13 million euros, the city hall is expecting a reduction of 800,000 euros for the entire year. To date, 5.26 million euros in revenue has been realized here.
How directly the corona pandemic and its consequences have affected the spa and tourism location of bad kissingen can best be gauged from figures from the spa sector. In the first half of 2019, reported vogel there, the spa tax revenues had still added up to 1.835 million euros. In the first half of 2020, only 0.981 million euros came in.
Robbery during overnight stays
The decline in the economic core of bad kissingen is also reflected massively in the comparison of the number of overnight stays. In a normal month of a normal year paid 130 000 to 150 000 overnight stays. This year there were 26,000 visitors in april, 30,000 in may, 63,000 in june and 99,000 in july. In august the state bath gmbh had registered 72,000 overnight stays so far. At least the increase in the recent past gives some cause for hope.