Malejąca samodzielność finansowa miast na prawach powiatu jako bariera ich rozwoju społeczno-ekonomicznego
Decreasing financial self-sufficiency of towns with county rights as an obstacle to their social and economic development

Summary/Abstract: Towns with county rights are a particular combination of commune and county administrations,and so is the scope of their responsibility, for they discharge the tasks pertinent to a communeand to a county. As other administrative units they possess legal personality and shape their ownfinancial policy (within the existing legal framework), an aspect that forms the foundation of theirfinancial self-sufficiency. High levels of own revenues per capita and high shares of own in totalrevenues are the self-sufficiency goals that promote better satisfaction of the inhabitants needs andstable development of local government. Own revenues of towns with county rights are the mainsource of their income and yet, for the last few years their share in total revenues has been observedto decline. These worrisome findings may be related to some demographic and social changes thattake place within the towns and if persistent may hinder the financial management of the their governmentand impede their social and economic development.The paper aimed to assess the changes in the level of financial self-sufficiency of towns withcountry rights between 2005 and 2014. The study took into account selected indicators of self-sufficiencypaying special attention to a group of towns described as metropolitan. Moreover, the paperattempted to identify determinants of the changes and explore development opportunities of theunits. The research drew on data published by the Central Statistical Office (Local Data Bank) andthe Ministry of Finance.

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