Autonomía y suficiencia financiera en la Hacienda local

Abstract

The Local Finance Regulation in the 1978 Constitution is a logical consequence of its designed organization of the country, that is, a decentralized state, with a government in three levels: state, regional and local. This should be connected to the constitutional principles, ruling principles for Local Finances as it is stated in Art. 137 CE that proclaims "autonomy in the management of their respective interests" of towns, provinces and regions and also Art. 140 where autonomy is recognized for municipalities; besides Art. 142CE is related to the guarantee of financial sufficiency when declaring "Local Finances should have enough means to perform the roles the Law sets down to the different Corporations..." The combination and interaction of these precepts define the local funding model which derives from the Basic Rule. It is a mixed funding system, which is a compound of internal and external means in order to guarantee the adequacy of resources. All these questions arouse our interest to study the Local Government, mainly its local funding, through the analysis of the rules which have governed it. We will focus our attention on how this legislation has included in its articles the guiding principles of local finance, the principle of self-management and, more precisely the principle of financial autonomy and sufficiency.