Accounting of Territorial Authorities

Federal Government

In 2019, the Federal Government’s surplus from the General Budget was € 1.5 bn - a € 2.6 bn difference to the previous years deficit; expenditures increased 1.1 %, revenues increased 4.5 % during the reporting year (referring to general public accounting “Allgemeine Gebarung des Finanzierungshaushalts”). With € 9.8 bn, personnel expenditures constituted about 13.2 % of the whole budget-volume of general public accounting. Expenses and receipts (cash flow statement) “Ausgaben und Einnahmen des Geldflusses aus der Finanzierungstätigkeit” increased by about 5.9 % and 1.3 % respectively.

State Governments excluding Vienna

Regarding the State Governments excluding Vienna, Lower Austria had the greatest total expenditure (€ 10.1 bn or 27.5 % of total expenditure of all State Governments excluding Vienna) in 2019, followed by Styria (€ 7.2 bn or 19.6 %). In the reporting year 2019 the budgets of Carinthia and Salzburg decreased by 9.61 % and 0.08 % respectively. Consequently, the budgets of the remainder of all State Governments increased during that period. In the reference year 2019, debt levels of State Governments excluding Vienna decreased by 0.03 %. The highest per-capita-figures for debt at the State Government-level were those in Carinthia with € 4 555 (-0.4 % in comparison to 2018) and Styria with €3 477. The lowest figure with respect to this figure can be seen in Vorarlberg with a per-capita-figure of € 282.

Vienna

In the reporting year 2019, Vienna’s expenditures and revenues were € 14.2 bn, which means an increase of 1.55 %. € 2 959 m - 20.8 % - of the whole budget was spent on personnel, which represents an increase of 0.4 % compared to financial year 2018. Debt decreased in the reference year by 0.1 % to € 6.7 bn (2018: € 6.7 bn) - in absolute figures this implies a decrease of € 9 m.

Local Governments excluding Vienna

In 2019, the accounting figure “Maastricht-result” according to Voranschlags- und Rechnungsabschlussverordnung (VRV) considerably improved by € 282 m, so that the Local Governments ended up with a deficit of € 153 m (2018: -435 m; 2017: +12 m; 2016: +142 m). All Local Governments realized a surplus in 2019 except for Lower Austria (€-50 m), Styria (€-121 m), Tyrol (€-59 m) and Vorarlberg (€-27 m); amongst the capital cities, all except for Salzburg, Innsbruck and Bregenz closed the financial year 2019 with a deficit.

30.3 % (€ 7.090 m) of total expenditure (€ 23.441 m) was spent on salaries, wages and on investments. 7 % (€ 1.636 m) was spent on amortization and interest payments. In comparison with the previous year, the Local Governments’ investment activities – excluding the purchase of property and investment subsidies – increased by € 219 m (+ 8 %) The increase in this item varied between -4.1 % (Salzburg) and +25.7 % (Styria).

Regarding the total revenue of € 23.497 m, 46.4 % was generated by tax revenues of Local Governments (€ 3.868 m) and shares of the yields out of joint federal taxes (€ 7.044 m). The tax revenues of Local Governments excluding Vienna grew by 4.5 % (€ 166 m); the yields out of joint federal taxes increased by +5.6 %.