Financial evening March 5, 2026

The key figures of the 2024 cash flow statement showed a significant reduction in cash reserves compared with 2023. In 2025 cash reserves increased due to taking out a short-term loan. The municipality’s loan stock grew by EUR 3.6 million in 2025. The increase resulted from borrowing by Janakkala Water.

One of the most important indicators in municipal finances is the accumulated surplus/deficit, which looks to be deteriorating rapidly for the municipality over the 2026–2028 financial planning period. The obligation to cover a deficit is pursuant to Section 110 of the Local Government Act, according to which the municipality must cover an accumulated deficit in the balance sheet within at most four years starting from the beginning of the year following the adoption of the financial statements. The quick ratio was 0.38 in 2024 and 0.42 in 2025.

According to the 2026 budget, the municipality’s accumulated surplus is decreasing rapidly. Restoring the municipality’s finances takes time because of decision-making processes.

The proposal to close village schools is based on the council’s decision that savings of EUR 0.5–1 million must be achieved already during the current year.

The municipality has made investments over the past ten years, some of which were also financed by leasing, which means the municipality has rental expenses to pay. The depreciation level has risen by about two million euros.

Attempts to balance the municipality’s finances have been made several times over the years. Previous decisions have not resulted in significant savings, so measures must continue. The central measures now have been increases in municipal income tax and property tax.

There is no such analysis ready, because rent is a fixed and essential part of a school’s costs.

The distribution of corporate tax to municipalities is mainly based on the location of companies’ establishments and the number of employees, not solely the company’s legal domicile. Allocation shares are confirmed annually by an ordinance of the Ministry of Finance.

Savings are by no means the only way to secure the municipality’s future. Work to promote vitality is ongoing. Alongside the matters on municipal officials’ desks, other concrete actions are listed in the answer to the next question.

For example: a recent business services agreement with Janakkala Business Development, a regional cooperation agreement for vitality with Riihimäki, Hausjärvi and Loppi, investments in our own employment and business services alongside the South Häme employment area, a plot campaign (plots at EUR 2/m2), zoning and development of business areas, and municipal marketing.

A note in response to this question for Eero Laesterä: at present there are no plans to build a new central school to replace primary schools. The school building project currently on the planning table is a new building to replace the dilapidated lower secondary–upper secondary school.

The global political situation affects municipal finances quickly, for example via rising inflation. As an example, the war in Ukraine has led to increased inflation and the European Central Bank’s interest rate hikes, which in turn have increased the municipality’s interest costs.

Preliminary impact assessments are carried out for measures, in which we try to look at effects from multiple perspectives also over the long term. For some topics there are longer-term monitoring studies, but assessments are based on the best available information on the effects. Impacts are examined from the perspectives of the economy, the environment, residents, the organisation and vitality/businesses. The assessments are attached to decision proposals. (https://www.janakkala.fi/en/assessment-of-the-preliminary-impacts-of-decisions/)

It is impossible to state the effects in absolute numbers because no one knows them in advance. Looking back at Janakkala’s history and population development, nine smaller schools have been closed in the municipality, but the largest population growth occurred afterwards. On the other hand, there has not been growth in recent years, even though the current school network has been in place since 2013.

The idea is justified, and courage is needed in zoning from the strategy perspective. From the municipality’s point of view the matter is not that simple, because zoning also brings obligations to arrange road connections, public areas and water services. From a strategy perspective, the municipality must also produce services sustainably. Thus financial realities become obstacles to detailed zoning in villages. Before zoning, the municipality’s land ownership and the nearest water connection points must be examined village by village so that it can be economically determined whether zoning is viable.

The municipality primarily zones areas from the perspective of a sustainable community structure. A sustainable community structure is based on placing new construction primarily in existing population centres where infrastructure (e.g. municipal engineering and water services) and services are already nearby. This allows the municipality to use tax revenues efficiently, since infilling of population centres is more economical and environmentally sustainable.

This does not mean that construction in rural areas cannot be promoted. On the contrary, more flexible solutions should be sought. Rural construction can be enabled, for example, through planning permission solutions or targeted zoning where road connections, wastewater solutions and other basic infrastructure can be implemented without imposing an unreasonable additional obligation on the municipality. Private land ownership also plays a significant role when building in villages. The municipality may not necessarily own land in the villages.

Janakkala’s financial situation is not weak according to crisis‑municipality indicators, and the municipality still has the opportunity by its own actions to turn finances onto a more sustainable footing.

The matter has been prepared as part of a broader assessment of the school network and the municipality’s finances. The review has emphasised objective criteria such as pupil forecasts, functional suitability, accessibility of services, the overall picture of facility solutions and the long‑term financial effects of the solutions.

Decision‑making has aimed to take into account the municipality’s overall interest and to ensure that the school network remains economically and functionally sustainable in the coming years.

From the perspective of the savings target, the essential thing is managing the whole rather than examining a single factor in isolation from the rest of the service network.

There is already a continuous possibility to propose improvements to the feedback channel.

As part of the earlier balancing work there was such a channel, but it showed that it is difficult for a resident to grasp the financial whole. Practically all suggestions received through the channel were ideas that would have increased both the municipality’s costs and workload.

Direct link to the feedback channel.

The municipality currently has about 150 plots for sale. Of these, just over 60 are located in Turenki. In addition, the municipality has a relatively large undeveloped zoning reserve and there are about 130 apartments for sale in Janakkala.

The municipality does not yet have detailed information about the companies that will locate there, and therefore the area could also attract businesses that do not have many employees on site or whose employees commute from another municipality. For the time being, it is not seen that the municipality’s plot supply or apartments would run out for the workers of the Kanssi area.

The village development project has been part of the service network planning steering group’s materials as a possible measure, but no decisions have been made. The municipality’s urgent financial stabilisation measures and the service network planning will absorb a great deal of resources across the organisation this year. The municipal strategy will be implemented one issue at a time; not everything can simply be done simultaneously.

The measure requires that funds be allocated to the village development project in future budgets.