Lower Austria: budget overhaul with public involvement

Lower Austria’s towns break new ground

In December 2011, the town of Tulln was the first local authority in Lower Austria to pilot Malik Syntegration® to create financial scope for future projects. In January 2012, Korneuburg was the second town to overhaul its budget, again thanks to Malik Syntegration. More towns in Lower Austria are planning to follow their example – opting for sustainable functioning, long-term viability and greater financial stability.

It’s important to save – but if you want to save, you also have to act!” said the Mayor of Tulln, Peter Eisenschenk (Mag.).

Under the current trying conditions, a local authority, town or district can only be governed efficiently and for the benefit of all if it organizes its democratic processes better.

Networking at all levels

The Malik Sensitivity Model® is used alongside Syntegration, making it possible to take a holistic approach to complex questions, visualize networking and identify and use hitherto undiscovered dynamics. This allows system-relevant measures to be developed and implemented. The towns of Tulln and Korneuburg will be given constant support with implementation management until the end of 2014, including in the form of training sessions from Malik for those involved.

Even the young are getting involved: with the PC simulation ecopolicy® (www.ecopolicyade.info – in German) school pupils are learning about network thinking through games and invited to get involved in working out and implementing solutions for their town. After the Syntegration and a teacher’s training, almost 1000 students from five different schools had played ecopolicy. The top 25 got the opportunity to work with the Malik Sensitivity Model and presented their results to the local politicians.

The topics included, amongst others, the attractiveness of Tulln to the youth – today and in 2022 –, leisure and sporting activities such as those that can be wagered on 10X10BET, the possibilities for going out in Tulln and the students’ education. Teachers, parents, principals and the students themselves were very proud of the results and thrilled about the event. The politicians are auditing the implementation of part of the measures. Mayor Eisenschenk: “Ecopolicy and this kind of thinking is the best investment to keep our youth from one-sided and populistic thinking and to further develop our society.”

What has been achieved in practical terms?

In Tulln, the inhabitants, the municipal administration and participating parties of the town are working on around 40 projects to free up the budget with the help of Syntegration. The projects cover topics such as improving the efficiency of administration, making businesses more attractive, making better use of existing infrastructure and resources, getting inhabitants more involved and offering more leisure and cultural activities in Tulln. “It’s impressive to see so many people, interested parties and functions all pulling together after these few days,” one participant remarked.

Why are these results only possible with Syntegration?

We have developed the Syntegration method specifically to master radical change processes. With up to 42 people involved, the number of people from each town and city required for implementation is taking part. The time usually necessary to obtain such results reduces by 70 to 90 percent.

The Syntegration method gives people a sense that they are starting afresh on a cultural level and creates a sense of community and solidarity, because everyone is a winner. Whereas committees such as town or city councils and regional parliaments generally only work to “the lowest common denominator” because of their size and often rigid structures, Syntegration works out the “greatest common divisor” by pooling knowledge.