Of over 11,000 local authorities nationwide, there are "around 2,500 towns and municipalities squeezed by so much debt that they're gasping for breath," Scholz told the Funke Newspaper Group. Officials like Scholz often retort that rather than a lack of funds, the real problem is planning and financial bottlenecks at local authorities, who are responsible for spending on items like schools and roads. The Social Democrat (SPD) party finance minister said that the total amount owed by overindebted communities was around 40 billion euros, most of them in western states like North Rhine-Westphalia. Scholz's plans still face hard talks with coalition partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CDU party, as well as with leaders of the states with fewer financially troubled local authorities. Berlin proudly declared this year that it would achieve the goal for the first time since 2002.

Source: The Local December 21, 2019 00:11 UTC