On the Financing of Initiative Projects: Municipal Experience of Priangarya

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the municipal experience of legal regulation of various aspects of financing initiative projects in the trans-territory of the Angara region. The authors emphasize the widespread introduction of initiative budgeting practices in Russia, as well as the corresponding development of legal norms governing the selection and financing of foreign projects. The analysis of the federal basis made it possible to establish clearly the competence of local governments in the indicated area. With that in mind, the authors assessed the quality and effectiveness of municipal legal acts on the procedure and method of financing initiative projects. It is noted that due to the factor of high social significance of the participation of citizens in the budget process, norms on initiative projects and their financial support are included in the charters of most municipalities. However, the detailed legal regulation of financial support issues for initiative projects is rather heterogeneous. The authors highlighted two main approaches: regulation within a single complex act or by several municipal normative legal acts regulating individual issues of proactive budgeting. Based on the analysis of municipal rule-making, the authors conclude that, regardless of the chosen approach, approximately the same range of issues is meaningfully regulated, due to the rule-making competence of municipalities. The article provides examples of both direct duplication of federal legislation to mechanical borrowing of the main principles regarding the procedures of initiative budgeting, and very original norms. Of particular interest is the experience of municipal regulation aimed at guaranteeing making of initiative payments to the local budget. The study suggests the conclusion about necessity to improve the quality of legal technology and detail the mechanisms for making initiative payments, which will make the current procedure as transparent and understandable as possible for the initiator of any preparedness level.