Dr Wendelin Wanka, Chief Executive Office of Vienna City
 
INTEGRATIVE CITY DEVELOPMENT - VIENNA EXAMPLES (Page 2)
 
In Austria the financial competencies are distributed between the federal state, the Länder and the municipalities. Taxes are classified according to which regional authority is entitled to dispose of tax revenues in its budget, for instance duties collected at federal level for the federal budget, federal taxes divided. In addition both the federal state and the Länder have the right to devise new taxes, municipalities can issue taxes by decree.
 
Financial equalisation takes place all five years between the federal state and the Länder taking into account different financial burdens.
 
How does the city finance itself? As said, through money from the financial equalisation and own revenues, for instance taxes, fees and charges. Vienna has a pretty stable budget, despite stiff competition and international crisis. Furthermore, the three public bodies [federal state, Länder, municipalities] have signed a stability pact in order to stick to the Maastricht criteria: the annual deficit must not exceed 3% of the GDP and the total government debt must not exceed 60% of the GDP. The revenues in 2000 have been for Vienna 121 billion and the expenses 131 billion Austrian Schillings.
 
Already 75 years ago, Vienna´s city fathers set themselves the task of making the whole town an inviting place to live in. "Light, air and sunshine" was the maxim and 65.000 commensurate flats were built within 15 years, setting a housing standard which has held to this day. Nearly 10.000 flats were built yearly in the nineties - 65.000 in the last decade-. As of the seventies architects were encouraged to give buildings an aesthetic touch and often substandard houses of the boom period of a hundred years before were revitalized. The City of Vienna is the biggest landlord of the world with 220.000 flats. Especially in the past ten years also the construction of office buildings, office towers has sprung up enormously.
 
In the face of new challenges and opportunities -
 
for instance, rapid development of new technologies, new requirements in the field of transport policy due to EU enlargement, changing lifestyles and recreational preferences, competition among cities and increasing globalisation -
 
the primary goal of integrative city development in Vienna is to ensure the best overall development. This requires a continued proactive planning effort taking economic, social and ecological qualities equally into account, all of which contribute to make a city attractive. Social justice and co-responsibility, viable economic systems for the future and responsible management of the natural environment constitute the main pillars of strategy for Vienna.
 
For this reason a Strategy Plan under the motto "Committed to quality - innovative Strategies for Vienna [Qualität verpfichtet, Innovationen für Wien]" was drawn up in the year 2000. This plan was prepared in eight working groups comprising over 100 experts from the city administration. In order to include the public, five urban discourse meetings and 10 city fora with external experts were held. Many suggestions were included in the course of these meetings.
 
The Strategy Plan of Vienna tries to meet the before mentioned challenges. This plan is to preserve and use existing advantages of Vienna while identifying new fields of competence and strengthening the city´s position as an attractive international business location. Additionally, it focuses on Vienna´s role as a gateway from West to East and vice versa. The plan, furthermore, contains a clear orientation towards specific action and practical implementation. One of the objectives is also co-operation between administration, business community, scientists, interest groups and regional, national and international partners.
 
This Strategy Plan starts with a concise image of a vision for the coming ten to twenty years taking into account integrative city development elements. Let me briefly introduce these perspectives: