Local Autonomy Of Expenditures – Case Study For Romanian Local Governments

Strong local autonomy or decentralization process became a goal for local governments, but one of the main question in literature remains as how strong must be the local autonomy of expenditures at the local governments’ level. Given the great diversity of situations and legal framework over the period after 1990, I consider that Romania must have a stable legal framework regarding local public finances and stable strategy of local development designed to implement a sustainable process of decentralization in Romanian. The paper will try to emphasize the local autonomy of expenditures in Romania, taking into account an overview of this aspect and empirical evidences. In this regard, I will use the background offered by literature and legal framework and the official statistics data for analysis to identify the degree of local autonomy of expenditures in Romania. I estimate the analysis to confirm a normal local autonomy of expenditures, but also a need for improvement that require solutions and budgetary policy options as part undisputed positioning local government finance as an engine of development. I consider the paper can be considered a useful viewpoint in understanding local public expenditures in Romania and the degree of local autonomy, thus adding to the existing literature on financial decentralization field.