Page 90 - RIMD_2012_3
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90 | Challenges and Obstacles of Local Public Management
question of the necessary financial means for the exercise of powers and,
somehow, links the financial issues of the administrative autonomy, more in
a management logic than in a legal logic.
Thus, this article states:
“1. Local authorities shall be entitled, within national economic policy, to
adequate financial resources of their own, of which they may dispose freely
within the framework of their powers.
2. Local authorities' financial resources shall be commensurate with the
responsibilities provided for by the constitution and the law.
3. Part at least of the financial resources of local authorities shall derive
from local taxes and charges of which, within the limits of statute, they have
the power to determine the rate.
4. The financial systems on which resources available to local authorities are
based shall be of a sufficiently diversified and buoyant nature to enable them
to keep pace as far as practically possible with the real evolution of the cost
of carrying out their tasks.
5. The protection of financially weaker local authorities calls for the
institution of financial equalization procedures or equivalent measures which
are designed to correct the effects of the unequal distribution of potential
sources of finance and of the financial burden they must support. Such
procedures or measures shall not diminish the discretion local authorities
may exercise within their own sphere of responsibility.
6. Local authorities shall be consulted, in an appropriate manner, on the way
in which redistributed resources are to be allocated to them.
7. As far as possible, grants to local authorities shall not be earmarked for the
financing of specific projects. The provision of grants shall not remove the
basic freedom of local authorities to exercise policy discretion within their
own jurisdiction.”
This article clearly states the obligation incumbent on States to ensure,
simultaneously with the transfer of powers to local authorities, the financial
resources necessary to exercise these powers.
Yet, it is rarely respected even by the States that have ratified the Charter.
Thus, the Polish voivodships and districts do not have their own taxes; in
what concerns the taxes shared between the Polish State and “its” local
authorities, their share is very low in the latter’s resources.
RIMD – n o 3 – 2012
question of the necessary financial means for the exercise of powers and,
somehow, links the financial issues of the administrative autonomy, more in
a management logic than in a legal logic.
Thus, this article states:
“1. Local authorities shall be entitled, within national economic policy, to
adequate financial resources of their own, of which they may dispose freely
within the framework of their powers.
2. Local authorities' financial resources shall be commensurate with the
responsibilities provided for by the constitution and the law.
3. Part at least of the financial resources of local authorities shall derive
from local taxes and charges of which, within the limits of statute, they have
the power to determine the rate.
4. The financial systems on which resources available to local authorities are
based shall be of a sufficiently diversified and buoyant nature to enable them
to keep pace as far as practically possible with the real evolution of the cost
of carrying out their tasks.
5. The protection of financially weaker local authorities calls for the
institution of financial equalization procedures or equivalent measures which
are designed to correct the effects of the unequal distribution of potential
sources of finance and of the financial burden they must support. Such
procedures or measures shall not diminish the discretion local authorities
may exercise within their own sphere of responsibility.
6. Local authorities shall be consulted, in an appropriate manner, on the way
in which redistributed resources are to be allocated to them.
7. As far as possible, grants to local authorities shall not be earmarked for the
financing of specific projects. The provision of grants shall not remove the
basic freedom of local authorities to exercise policy discretion within their
own jurisdiction.”
This article clearly states the obligation incumbent on States to ensure,
simultaneously with the transfer of powers to local authorities, the financial
resources necessary to exercise these powers.
Yet, it is rarely respected even by the States that have ratified the Charter.
Thus, the Polish voivodships and districts do not have their own taxes; in
what concerns the taxes shared between the Polish State and “its” local
authorities, their share is very low in the latter’s resources.
RIMD – n o 3 – 2012
