PROPERTY TAX AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

The modernization of the State and the decentralization process constitute an opportunity to improve the provision of public services and investments at the local level. However the process seen from the point of view of municipal financing is consolidating as a model based mostly on transfers from the central government (FONCOMUN and Canon Minero mainly). At the national level the discussion on the need and function of taxes is endless but in the case of local governments it is clear that if the services financed at the local level by property tax and service fees are of good quality and it is communicated to the citizens that it is precisely with these funds that these services are financed the evidence and the message have a positive impact on the citizens'' minds. And this relationship is visible in terms of local economic development and quality of life of the inhabitants.