Delft spiraling towards bankruptcy

Delft is going to suffer in the coming years due to the setbacks in the railway zone. Taxes will probably rise and grants will be removed. The city is heading for bankruptcy. For now, the city is subject to increased supervision provided by the province. This demands insight into the municipality household budget. Based on new calculations recently commissioned by the college, the financial malaise is enormous. To keep afloat, the municipality would have to cut back a further 16 million euros, on top of the previous cut of 59 million euros. Financial alderman Aletta Hekker (D66) is concerned that the new substantial cut backs will have disastrous consequences for the city. "Twelve million we can still catch up by scraping here and there, but we can not go further." That is the boundary of the socially acceptable. It would mean that major facilities such as the theater and the two remaining libraries will have to be closed. Then the city would have little more to offer its 100 thousand inhabitants. The cut back of 12 million euros per year will in itself be a painful operation. The municipality will not spare itself in the cut backs, in the next four years 300 of the 1040 official's jobs are expected to disappear. Residents will also notice the cut backs as for example, the property tax will rise. Hekker can see no solution, which is why help from the province was called in. Additionally the college wants to make new arrangement with the government over repayment of the railway tunnel. Delft still has to pay off 32 million euro of the 117 million euro to the government. The approach of the talks with the government will be that the money can be paid off at a slower pace.