Overview
- München’s mayor Dieter Reiter and finance chief Christoph Frey will propose filing a municipal constitutional complaint to the city council.
- Local leaders acted after losing in November at Bavaria’s Constitutional Court, which upheld the state’s prohibition on such levies.
- The state blocked a five percent surcharge on lodging that Munich passed in March 2023 by amending the Municipal Charges Act.
- The city argues the ban violates the Basic Law’s protection of local self-government and notes a separate state ban on a packaging tax further narrows fiscal options.
- The treasurer estimates up to €100 million in annual revenue is at stake, while pointing out that cities like Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt, Dresden, Dortmund, Bremen and Freiburg levy similar charges.