Horbaichuk L. Legal principles of ensuring the revenue part of local budgets in conditions of decentralization of power

The dissertation is a comprehensive study of the legal provision of the revenue part of local budgets in the conditions of decentralization in Ukraine. Approaches to understanding the concepts of "local budget" and "budget of local self-government" have been identified and the need to improve Ukrainian legislation in terms of their delineation has been substantiated by establishing uniform approaches to the interpretation of these concepts in budget legislation and legislation on local self-government. It was found that the financial and legal nature of the local budget is manifested in understanding it as a system of relations regarding the distribution and redistribution of part of the value of the gross product with the aim of forming a fund of financial resources of local self-government bodies to meet the needs of the local population. Local budgets ensure the independence of local self- government bodies, which gives them the opportunity to meet the needs of community residents as fully as possible. The expediency of understanding the role of local budgets through the calculation of the share of local budget revenues and expenses in the consolidated budget of Ukraine is substantiated, thereby evaluating the participation of local self-government in solving urgent problems of the socio-economic development of the country and individual communities, a certain limitation of the functions of central authorities. It is emphasized that this share is a general indicator that should reflect the level of financial independence of local self-government bodies and make it possible to assess the degree of development of local budgets. The dissertation examines and characterizes the main stages of the development of Ukrainian legislation on local budgets. The first (preparatory) stage is characterized by the creation of a legislative basis for the regulation of budgetary relations on the territory of an independent state - Ukraine, and, accordingly, a gradual departure from the approaches that dominated Soviet budgetary legislation. The second stage of the development of the legislation is related to the development of the system of local budgets while preserving the normative approach to the centralization of powers regarding the distribution of budget funds, observing the "tradition" of the dependence of lower-level budgets on higher-level budgets and the lack of financial autonomy and independence of local self-government bodies. The third stage is singled out, related to the comprehensive updating of budget and tax legislation, which was manifested in the adoption of relevant special codified acts. It was emphasized that the process of codification of Ukrainian legislation covered not only the issue of revenue formation of local budgets, but also taking into account the determination of the volumes of inter-budgetary transfers, due to which it was planned to increase their volume. It was established that the fourth stage in terms of its content and functional direction is the stage of carrying out reforms of power decentralization and financial decentralization, which made it possible to significantly expand the revenue part of local budgets due to the upward revision of the rates of deductions of certain national taxes and fees to local budgets, as well as the transfer of certain national taxes at the local level. It was concluded that the legislative changes of this period fixed: increasing the budgetary and financial independence of local budgets; deprivation of the right to exercise the powers delegated by the state to local self-government bodies in villages, towns, and cities of district significance that have not united; decentralization of spending powers in the social and cultural sphere and a clear division of competences formulated according to the principle of subsidiarity. The dissertation determined that ensuring the financial stability of local budgets should be based on such principles as: publicity, transparency and participatory formation of the revenue part of local budgets; independence and security of the formation of local budget revenues in order to realize selfsufficiency in the implementation of basic expenditures at the local level; allocation of revenues between budgets, the principle of allocation of revenues between budgets in accordance with the directions of their use by relevant local self-government bodies; cooperation between local self-government bodies for the purpose of fulfilling joint tasks of territorial development and providing services to the population.