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

This paper describes and analyses the current situation of local finances in Catalonia, especially that of municipalities, in order to identify what are, at the moment, the main challenges that need be faced. The reality that City Councils face today is very different, in many respects, from what it was when the main laws that determine both their jurisdictional framework and their financing model were approved. This paper provides reflections on the role that the level of local government should have in the Catalan public sector as a whole, the type of competences that municipalities could assume, their degree of financial autonomy, and the need to fulfil a certain principle of inter-municipal equality, while taking into account aspects such as the jurisdictional framework of the municipalities, their size and the existence of a large number of supra-municipal entities.