Over the next four years, in the EU research pro ject LoGov we will compare in several countries, both European and non-European, the different institutional and functional features of urban and rural municipalities. One of the aspects that we will consider is that of municipal financing. In the following, an initial, provisional and elementary comparison is drawn between the financing of Spanish municipalities and those of Canada. I thank Enid Slack of the University of Toronto for her crucial insights that have helped me understand the Canadian local financing system.
With global data, both in Spain and in the different provinces of Canada (since in this country local governments concern each province) revenues from own taxes contribute the majority of municipal revenues. The greatest differences are observed in the typology of taxes from which the income derives and in the other complementary sources of financing (borrowing excluded). Let us start with a simple description of the sources of municipal income in each country.
