Take-home pay is getting tighter. Exactly now it shows what a location is really worth.

It is again the small sentences that stay with me. A mother at the checkout who does a quick calculation before the second pack of coffee goes onto the belt. A master craftsman who, during my company visit this week, shows me the order books, full far into next year, and yet first says that it is not the orders that concern him, but the question of what every new employee costs him before that person shakes the first hand.

That is not a mood from television. That is the worry on a completely ordinary working day in Papenburg.

This week that worry also received an official number.

The world sends the bill, the country debates

The Wirtschaftsweisen, the Sachverständigenrat of the federal government, have presented their spring report. They halve the expected growth for this year, from 0.9 to 0.5 percent. And they say a sentence that hurts many: without reform, social contributions rise from 42.3 percent today to 45.4 percent in the year 2030 and to almost 50 percent in the year 2040.

Translated, that means two things. For every company, costs rise before the first product is sold. And for every family, less is left over at the end of the month. Anyone who lives from shipbuilding, suppliers and tourism knows this mechanism. A decision in Berlin or Brussels lands a few months later as a tangible question at a kitchen table in Aschendorf, Bokel or Obenende.

What a mayor cannot change

Now I am honest with you, even though in an election campaign it would be more comfortable to claim the opposite. Berlin decides on pension, care and health insurance contributions, not the town hall. A mayor does not turn these dials. Whoever promises you something else is selling you hot air.

And still I do not stay out of it. I very much do have an opinion on it. A country that lets its contributions run toward 50 percent takes the wind out of its companies and the air to breathe from its families. That calls for reforms, and soon. Staying out of it is the comfortable path. Taking a stand means saying it out loud, even when I do not decide it myself.

What we in Papenburg very much do hold in our hands

Here comes the part that really concerns me as mayor. The more expensive a location becomes from outside, the more decisive is what we shape ourselves on the ground. And there my influence is large.

Speed first. When a company wants to grow in Papenburg, a permit must not sit in the filing cabinet for half a year. The speed of the administration is hard cash, especially when costs rise elsewhere. That is why my firm commitment: one fixed contact person for every company, from the first inquiry to the permit. One number, one face, one clear answer.

Then closeness. I visit one company in Papenburg every week, fifty a year, firmly in the calendar and not only during the election campaign. Because I understand a problem in the workshop better than from a stage.

And finally purchasing power. When families have less net, every euro that stays in Papenburg instead of commuting away counts. Strong local companies are local jobs. Reliable childcare ensures that both parents go to work when they want to. All of that is carried by a strong economy. It is the foundation on which day-care centers, housing and clubs, and with them the quality of life of the Papenburgers, stand.

Possibility-maker means delivering when it gets hard

In over 25 years of professional experience, 8 of them in this city’s economic development, I have learned where this lever sits. Not from the textbook, but from hundreds of conversations with people who are the first to unlock the hall in the morning.

I do not change the report from Berlin. The way a company can work and grow well in Papenburg, that I shape. That is exactly what I stand for. And because I am independent and tied to no party, I can afford this stance.

A possibility-maker is not the one who complains about the great crisis. A possibility-maker is the one who ensures that things move forward on our own doorstep nonetheless.

Papenburg can do more. Even when the wind from outside gets rougher.

How does this make itself felt for you, in your company, at your kitchen table? Feel free to write to me, by email or through the contact form. I am reading along and I answer.