Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 17th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview V. Working Group on Public Sector Finance and Accounting Author(s) Sander Pollumae Ministry of Justice of Estonia Tallinn Estonia Title Municipal assets management in Estonia File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract In this paper I'll discuss management of municipal assets and collecting charges and other revenues from municipal assets in Estonia. After regaining independence on 1991 Estonia had rapid property reform. Assets that belonged to executive committees of town, parishes, and villages were transferred to local government units that were formed on bases of the same executive committees system. These assets have been both burden (big sports and administrative facilities of former collective farms in small rural areas) and source of revenues (houses and land in capital and other towns). In addition municipalities had legal title to use free of charge or obtain from state facilities that they needed for execution of their statutory tasks. Also maintenance of local roads and streets is municipal task, but the issue of ownership of the land below local roads and streets has not been totally solved yet. According to § 37 of the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia local government units are obliged to maintain sufficient facilities for education. According to law primary and secondary education and hobby schools are functions of local government units. Teachers' salaries are paid by and local government authorities get investment aid from central government, but funds for maintaining schools and other educational facilities have to be determined in local budgets. Primary and secondary education is free of charge for pupils, but hobby education and use of sports facilities after lessons can be charged. Expenditures for maintaining school facilities are object for inter-municipal transfers if pupil chooses to go to primary or secondary school in other municipal unit (it is usually the case when his/her parents work in other municipal unit or the level of education is higher in some specialized school or school with good reputation). These issues are studied in more details in small local government unit Saku. Rural municipality Saku situates about 20 km from center of capital Tallinn and belongs to so called "golden circle" of the capital. The area of municipality is 171 km2, the population of the municipality is 8196 inhabitants (01.01.2007) and the budget of Saku is about 15,7 million EUR. Saku is one of the few municipalities in Estonia which doesn't get any aid from equalization fund of central government. They raise all revenues by themselves. The biggest source of revenues is local share of national income tax, but the third is income from sale of assets. In addition to that there are revenues from rental of assets and charges from use of rooms and sports facilities. In the case study of rural municipality of Saku I'll take a closer look to how authorities of Saku manage assets and collect revenues from assets, what are the legal, political, social and economical constrains.
