The Changing Role of the Local Budget in Russian Cities

Local public finance provides the backdrop for political and economic change on the subnational level. Tracking the evolution of an independent local fiscal system measures the institutional response to change in the Russian economy. City budgets fund most expenditures on quality of life and social welfare. They reflect simultaneously central government requirements and local priorities. In Russia, local budgetary composition received serious attention within the scope of reforms beginning in the mid-1980s. Until recently, however, information was not available to measure the impact of central reforms at the city level. Using recently available detailed city budgetary data, this chapter traces fiscal decentralization and the development of independent expenditure policies and priorities at the local level in one Russian city, Yaroslavl. ¹