Local finance in Catalonia: Recent evolution, current situation and main challenges

Abstract

This paper describes and analyses the current situation surrounding local finances in Catalonia, placing special emphasis on municipalities, in order to identify the main challenges in need of a solution today. The realities currently faced by city councils are, in many respects, quite different from when the main laws determining both their jurisdictional framework and their financing model were approved. This paper provides reflections on the role local government should play within the entirety of the Catalan public sector, as well as on the type of competences municipalities could assume, their degree of financial autonomy and the need to adhere to a certain principle of inter-municipal equality, while taking into account aspects such as municipalities' jurisdictional framework and their size, and the existence of a large number of supra-municipal entities.