Tug of war over the ORF plan – nerves blank? Brunner dropped the fee cap

Smoking heads and frantic phone calls are currently the tug-of-war over the future funding of the ORF. The internal party problems behind the scenes concern the size of the cut demanded by Media Minister Susanne Raab (ÖVP). In fact, the sum of the fee, which appears on the receipt at the end of the day, is politically important (for survival) in the year of the National Council election in times of record inflation for turquoise-green.

Because it makes a big difference whether there is a mini discount on the mandatory rate of just over four euros on average or up to ten euros less and a uniform rate of 18.59 euros for everyone. At least for the more than 3.3 million households that have already paid. In the future there should be at least 300,000 more…

Secret plan leaked
Be that as it may: the secret government plan that the Minister of Finance would take over the federal tax, including sales tax, and the state taxes (these amount to a total of 150 million euros) has the strict master of the budget, Magnus Brunner. The negotiating summit with ORF general Roland Weißmann, scheduled for Wednesday, was canceled at short notice.

In any case, time is running out, because the ORF Foundation Council is already meeting at the end of March. In any case, the savings plan for Rotstift-Funk of more than 325 million euros by 2025 must be approved there and, in any case, the framework for the “new GIS” must be in force from January next year.