Local Public Finance and Territorial Issues

Claire DELPECH AdCF, enseignante, Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (CNAM). Contact : c.delpech@adcf.asso.fr.

Françoise NAVARRE Maître de conférences, École d'urbanisme de Paris EUP, Lab'Urba, Université Paris-Est. Contact : navarre@u-pec.fr.

Within the local public finances, the budgets of the municipalities and their associations occupy the first place. In fact the role and the competencies of the public inter-municipality cooperation establishments (EPCI) have been reinforced with successive reforms. The financial resources for these EPCI (dynamic taxes, a specific funding allocation) have allowed the growth of their expenditures, their interventions for the provision of local public services according to the needs of citizens and territories.

When the financial model of these local authorities is rather strong, it seems to be weakening. Due to (national/supranational) constraints that are far from local concern, local governments are involved in the restoration of public accounts. The decrease of State grants, the limits for their expenditures evolution constrained their operational capacity. Local taxes become less and less local ; local fiscal autonomy decreases. That trend (based on a vertical logic) raises challenges about coherence in public policies, and also about finances of decentralized governments, according to territorial issues.