“Polish Deal” and financial autonomy of communes in Poland

Purpose – The article aims to present the main changes in the financing of municipalities in Poland resulting from the implemented “Polish Deal” and “Polish Deal 2.0” programs and to assess the consequences of their introduction for the financial autonomy of municipalities. Research method – The article will use methods typical of social sciences, i.e. the method of empirical cognition, in particular observation, comparison, and measurement. The authors will compare the amount of loss of revenue of municipalities resulting from the reduction of their revenue from share in PIT with the amount of “compensation” in the form of a development part of the general subsidy and will assess their impact on the financial autonomy of municipalities. Results – A significant loss of own revenue from the share of municipalities in PIT is to be compensated by revenue under the development part of the general subsidy. However, even the cumulative equalised compensation, which is unlikely to occur, will lead to a reduction in the financial autonomy of municipalities. The proposed construction of the development part of the subsidy will favour units with funds for the implementation of property expenditures, and at the same time, the upper limits of its allocation will restrict the acquisition of funds by the largest units in terms of investment potential. Although shares in taxes constituting central budget revenue are not a source of revenue that clearly has a positive impact on the financial autonomy of municipalities, their replacement with an additional part of the general subsidy will contribute to further limitiations of this autonomy, which should be the foundation of the local government. Originality/value/implications/recommendations – It seems necessary to undertake a broad discussion on the reconstruction of the system of financing municipalities and other local government units in Poland. The system does not currently provide an appropriate revenue structure for the entities and does not favour the sustentation of one of the basic principles of operation – financial autonomy.