Problems and Prospects of Inter-budget Relations in Russia’s Urban Agglomerations

Abstract

The development of urban agglomerations is an urgent direction of the state policy of the Russian Federation in the field of territorial development. The purpose of this article is to identify current problems in the sphere of budgetary interaction within urban agglomerations and to develop approaches to building an optimal system of inter-budget relations in different agglomeration models. Among them we can distinguish the traditional model (in which the core is an urban district, the satellite zone — municipalities located in the same subject of the Russian Federation), the interregional model (municipalities forming an agglomeration are located in several subjects of the Russian Federation) and the model of agglomeration formed around a city of federal significance. The result of the study is a set of proposals for building interrelated measures in the field of inter-budget relations aimed at creating conditions to stimulate agglomeration processes. The proposals include recommendations for certain amendments and additions to the current budgetary legislation in order to adapt the instruments of inter-budget regulation to the needs of territorial development.

Keywords

• agglomerations
• agglomeration development
• inter-budget relations
• horizontal transfers
• horizontal budget loans