You build a school once with borrowed money. Carrying it takes a strong economy.

This week the KfW, the federal government’s promotional bank, published an analysis that made me sit up. Almost every second municipality in Germany is putting the money from the new special fund into two areas: schools and roads. Exactly where the renovation backlog has been largest for years.

And the KfW’s chief economist, Dirk Schumacher, says a sentence about it that I wrote down. In essence: the money is welcome, but given the huge backlogs it is only a drop on a hot stone. What it really takes are structural reforms of municipal finances, not just temporary cash injections.

I read that and immediately thought of Papenburg. Because the big federal story has a very concrete face here.

Papenburg is doing exactly what the KfW describes

Look at our own budget for 2026. The largest projects are the new building of the Dieckhausschule with 4 million euros, a new sports hall at the Michaelschule with 3 million and the renovation of the sports hall at the Heinrich-von-Kleist-Schule with another million. On top of that roads, the lock, the fire brigade.

That is good. Those are proper investments in our children and in the substance of the town. I do not question a single one of these projects.

But I am honest with you, even if that is more uncomfortable in an election campaign than a nice groundbreaking ceremony. In 2026 Papenburg is investing more than ever before, over 45 million euros.

A large part of that is borrowed money. Our own town’s financial plan shows where that leads. The level of debt is heading toward over 50 million euros by the end of 2026, and for the years 2026 to 2029 the plan provides for around 39 million euros of net new borrowing. Per capita that means a multiplication within a few years.

That is not the failure of one single person. That is exactly the bind the KfW describes for the whole of Germany. The tasks grow, the district levy eats the biggest chunk, and in the end the treasury is often left with nothing but credit.

The drop evaporates, the hot stone stays

This is where it becomes fundamental for me. A grant from the federal government builds a school once. But it does not heat it, it does not clean it, it does not pay for the teaching kitchen in ten years and not for the next sports hall. A cash injection is a flash in the pan. Nice and warm, quickly over.

What carries a town permanently is not the borrowed money and not the one-off grant. It is what the town earns itself. And that leads straight to the topic I stand for.

In the end a municipality finances its schools, its roads, its day-care centers from one single reliable source: from a strong local economy. From companies that make profits here and pay trade tax. From jobs that families live on, families who shop here and pay property tax. Our trade tax rate has stood unchanged at 380 percent since 2016. The interesting question is not how high the rate is. The interesting question is how many strong companies pay it at all.

Thinking structurally means starting with the economy

The KfW calls for structural reforms. At federal level that means repairing the system of municipal finances. I do not decide that. At the level I steer as mayor, structural means something very concrete: strengthening the revenue side instead of only administering the spending side.

A town that lets its companies grow, attracts new ones and keeps skilled workers builds its own lasting source for good schools and decent roads. A town that only hopes for the next grant from Berlin stays dependent and takes on more debt.

In over 25 years of professional experience, 8 of them in this city’s economic development, I have learned that municipal finances are not an accounting topic. They are the consequence of whether a town is economically strong or not. Whoever wants the school has to want the economy. The two belong together, one carries the other.

That is why economic policy is a matter for the mayor herself and not a sideshow. It is the basis for us still being able to afford the Dieckhausschule and the next sports hall the day after tomorrow, without passing the mountain of debt straight on to our children.

The drop from Berlin is welcome. But Papenburg does not get full on drops. Papenburg becomes strong when we tend our own source.

Papenburg can do more. And Papenburg can afford more when the economy carries it.

Where do you see the biggest renovation backlog in Papenburg, and which investment matters most to you? Feel free to write to me, by email or through the contact form. I am reading along and I answer.