Local Government II 1900-5-ST2

Part I. Local government finance in Poland

1. The importance of local public finance. Public goods, merit goods, natural monopolies.
2. The main features of intergovernmental finance system. Categories of local revenues, the desired features of the financial system, main elements of the financial system in Poland.
3. Revenues from own sources: types of own revenues, local taxes in Poland
4. Intergovernmental transfers: types of transfers, general-purpose grant in Poland, types, and criteria for specific grants
5. Debt instruments and financing of local investments: legal regulations in Poland, economic and legal criteria of indebtedness, borrowing policies of Polish local governments
6. Budgeting: legal regulations, budget calendar, the notion of operating surplus, the practice of budgeting in Polish local governments
7. Local tax policies: legal framework, the practice of tax policies in Poland

Part II. Service delivery

1. Trends in models of local services, marketization, and privatization, the impact of New Public Management
2. Local government as an entrepreneur - profit-oriented economic activity of local governments
3. Organizational forms of service delivery in Poland: jednostka budżetowa, zaklad budżetowa, local company
4. Relationship between local government and private providers of services
5. Financing local services. Pricing policies, subsidizing local services
6. Organizational forms of service delivery: the case of public transport and waste management
7. The impact of organizational arrangements on financing the development of communal infrastructure
8. The role of local governments in the delivery of social services - pre-school education