The Use of Additionally Mobilized Public Fund for Local Issues Addressing

At the present time municipalities in Russia for solving local issues mostly use funds from taxes. However, often tax revenue are not enough to ensure a high standard of living for the population in a particular area. It is assumed that the population is the most interested group in solving local issues, that is the reason why municipal authorities mobilize additional funds from local residents through self-taxation mechanisms and participatory budgeting (PB) programs. The present study is aimed to identify the positive effects and negative aspects of raising funds from the population by municipal authorities in Russian practice to resolve issues of local significance. For this reason, data collection involved municipal statistics gathered from the Ministry of Economic Development, a number of articles published by regional media collected in the informational service Factiva, and the interviews with representatives of municipal authorities and local residents. Based on the obtained information, a statistical and empirical analysis will be conducted. The results are anticipated to validate the initial hypothesis that the real goal of using formal self-taxation and initiative budgeting programs is to attract funds not from the population, but from the regional or federal budget.