municipialities

In the last weeks, we saw debates between the state and the municipalities, which discussed options to increase the resources for local development, but once again these evolved in the direction of centralized solutions.

Law and Justice found a solution to how to seize power in Warsaw in 2018. The party proposed to create so-called Great Warsaw by adding 32 surrounding municipalities to the city. New Warsaw will have area bigger than Paris or London.

Just a year after the topic of fiscal decentralization briefly entered the public debate in Bulgaria, the political volition for taking actual steps in this direction seems exhausted. The government stifles to a large extent the initiative of local authorities.

Intra-budgetary redistribution of the Personal Income Tax in Lithuania is aimed at providing financial support for economically weaker municipalities. The present analysis is aimed at measuring level differences of intra-budgetary redistribution of the Personal Income Tax across municipalities as well as identifying the major problems created by this process.

Under the European Charter of Local Self-Government, the internal administrative structure and the resources of the governments should correspond to the needs of the local population as well as ensure effective governance. However, statistical data shows the growth of municipal bureaucracy despite demographic decline.

Following 2014 reforms, municipalities allocate social allowances by performing municipal, rather than the state function. This reform was aimed at achieving more transparent and targeted social benefit allocation process by decreasing the volume of improper or inappropriate payments.