The city is suffering from a major financial setback
The municipality of Groningen is differing from a major financial setback due to the Coronavirus outbreak. The deficit is already between 10 and 20 million euros, says Alderman Paul de Rook. As reported by RTV Noord.
Last week, the municipality said that it has already set aside 2.7 million euros to deal with the first consequences of the outbreak. Unfortunately, Alderman De Rook has now confirmed that the total costs associated with the Coronavirus outbreak would be ‘a multiple’ of that 2.7 million.
“We want to stretch ourselves to the maximum to maintain the level of service,” says the Alderman. “We hoped that there would be some air in the financial field in 2020, but things turned out differently”, he said.
The municipality of Groningen itself is seeing its revenues squeezed by the Coronavirus. For example, fewer people are using parking garages in the city (the fees for which are received by the city), and the number of hotel stays has also fallen sharply. As a result, the municipality is missing tourist tax income.
This is offset by higher expenditures for the enforcement of the various measures and the implementation of different support schemes.
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