Les chambres régionales des comptes

THE RESOURCES (RECEIPTS) OF THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES : FORM OF THE MECHANISMS OF SOLIDARITY ENTERS THE CENTER AND THE PERIPHERY THEN BETWEEN THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS OF THE PERIPHERY

For memory, the principal receipts are consisted of the four local direct taxes which are the land frame, the land one not built, the tax of dwelling and by the professional tax.

What accounts for 85% of the total of the communal taxes, 65% of the total of the departmental taxes, 60% of the total of the regional taxes.

Admittedly, they exist other rates as the tax of removal on the household refuse, the local tax of equipment or the tax on the motor vehicles but they remain minors.

The products drawn from the management of the inheritance or the sale of services, account for 15% of the resources of the local communities. What can be, for example, the wood sale or the tariffing of rights of access to the libraries.

However, it should well be highlighted, from the point of view of sociology of the political organizations, that the legislative and lawful system set up is not a federal system, but an adjustment of the unit system.

The mechanisms of financial solidarity, like the institutional links between the administrative system and the political system, testify to the strong intrication of the interests between the actors of the local government and the politico-administrative system. Various systems testify to this solidarity with variable geometry

[1) The use of the equalization like vertical redistributive mechanism

the equalization goes back to 1975, supplemented in 1983 by funds national and 1991 by a specific equalization of Professional Tax coming from great surfaces^18(*).

The department distributes the amounts between the communes known as underprivileged, definite according to their tax potential or of the importance of their loads. 2 billion Francs was thus redistributed in 1993.

One also observes the Funds National of equalization of the professional tax (FNPTP) since 1983, affected by set up of the funds national of equalization envisaged by a law of 1995.

This law envisages a principal share coming on old first behalf of the Funds National of Professional Tax resulting from the national contribution of Professional Tax and an equipment poured by the State as well as equipment of compensation of professional tax. As it is seen, the application of principles of equity can lead to complex financial arrangements. This will be confirmed with the following point.

[2) Emergence of mechanisms of horizontal equalization

It is the case of the mutual aid funds of the communes of the Area Island-of-France (FSRIF) created by the law of May 13, 1991. It is about a taking away on the tax resources of the common rich person whose Tax Potential per capita is higher 40% than the average tax potential per capita of the communes of the area. The rate varies between 8 and 10% ; the amount is obligatorily reached a maximum to 5% of the amount of the real expenditure of operation of the commune.

The conditions of eligibility changed in 1996 : they take account of the average tax potential per capita, proportion of social housing, proportion of the recipients of assistances to housing, average income per capita.

* ¹⁸ The majority of the remarks on the local taxation result from the interventions of Mr. G. Gilbert, at the time of his course professed to the ENS Cachan- DEA Public action and contemporary companies- 2000/2001.