Local Government Organization and Finance: Poland
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the role of local government spending in the Polish economy and in the public finance system is presented in table 9.2. Polish municipal governments are responsible for providing a wide range of municipal services. They include water supply and sewage treatment; street cleaning, refuse collection, and waste disposal; local public transportation; street lighting; district central heating; maintenance and construction of local roads; maintenance of green areas; municipal housing; education services, including kindergartens and primary schools; culture, including local libraries and leisure centers; numerous services within the social welfare sector, including services for elderly, handicapped, and homeless people, as well as housing benefits; and physical planning and granting of building permits. During the 1990s, there were two significant changes in the scope of functions provided by municipal governments. In 1993, extended functions were granted to the largest cities (mostly those exceeding 100,000 people), as a part of the so-called pilot program. With some amount of simplification, we may say that those functions were identical to those that are now provided by county governments (see the list below). The second change concerned responsibility for primary schools. In 1990, several factors (including fear of teachers’ trade unions) caused a delay in transferring school responsibility to local governments. The transfer was delayed until 1994; until then schools were locally managed only in those localities that applied to do so. Later, the deadline for the schools transfer was delayed to 1996, when primary education (including financing teachers’ salaries) was passed to municipal governments. The method of school financing is described in the following sections.
T A B L E 9 . 2 Role of Local Government Finance in the National Economy All subnational governments
Municipalities
Spending or investment spending as a percentage of
1991
1995
1999
2004
1991
1995
1999
2004
Total budget expenditures Gross domestic product Total investments Total public investments Total budget investments
16.3 5.5 6.9 — 42.6
19.0 6.9 9.8 17.6 53.5
38.0 10.5 9.7 25.8 62.5
39.1 10.9 12.1 — 63.0
16.3 5.5 6.9 — 42.6
19.0 6.9 9.8 17.6 53.5
30.5 8.4 8.4 22.3 54.0
31.9 8.3 10.3 — 56.6
Source: Author’s calculations based on data from GUS 1992, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2005. Note: — = not available. Data on municipalities include cities with county status.
