Prof. Dr. Thomas Lenk, Dr. Tim Starke and Dr. Mario Hesse were commissioned by the Ministry of Finance of the State of Saxony-Anhalt in 2022, following a competitive bidding process, to conduct a financial assessment of Saxony-Anhalt's municipal fiscal equalization system in its horizontal structural elements. The report contains a detailed analysis of the financial situation of the municipalities in Saxony-Anhalt (including the development of revenues and expenditures, real taxes, indebtedness and the voluntary fulfillment of tasks) as well as an examination of the horizontal fiscal equalization system with regard to the main and secondary approaches. In addition, the financial levy, which combines the absorption of tax revenues from municipalities with particularly high tax revenues with a minimum allocation for municipalities with low tax revenues, was reviewed. This is followed by a detailed analysis of the distributional effects of the experts' proposals using a simulation model.
The report can be downloaded from the website of the Ministry of Finance of the State of Saxony-Anhalt.