The impending collapse of German municipal financesis due to rising expenditure, particularly on services such as youth welfare, integration support and care assistance. In accordance with the principle of causal connectivity – ‘who orders, pays’ – there are frequent calls for better federal funding of these municipal services, which are determined at central government level. In a new FiFo Discussion Paper, Michael Thöne examines solutions based on the ‘who orders, pays’ principle and on the principle of ‘who implements, pays’. As neither promises a sustainable solution, he recommends considering the complete centralisation of these services. Shifting the responsibility for implementation upwards too would, in practice, be significantly less demanding than it appears at first glance.