Investigating the methods of providing financial resources of municipalities in urban development and construction (a case study of Shahrood city)

Mass Thesis in Geography and Urban Planning

Chapter One

Research Overview

1-1- Introduction

Although urbanization in the world has a long history, the creation and expansion of new cities was mainly influenced by the industrial revolution in the 19th century. Population growth, diversity in production methods, the formation of public goods production system and changes in social relationships in the previous centuries provided a favorable environment for the creation and growth of cities. Along with the process of urbanization and the increase in the population of citizens, the demand for new goods and services in both the private and public sectors increased, prompting the trustees of cities and urban organizations to seek new ways and methods of providing financial resources for the production of needed goods and services. Municipalities, local governments, city councils and trustees of public institutions in the countries of the world tried in various ways to use internal and external financial facilities in order to create urban infrastructures in order to provide the services needed by citizens.

Providing financial resources is one of the most important duties of public institutions such as municipalities. Although the financial resources of municipalities can be obtained in different ways, but not all of them have the characteristics of stable income. Stability in incomes requires that these items have a relative continuity. And they should be reliable over time, and secondly, obtaining these revenues does not threaten and destroy the quality of the city. According to the above, it seems necessary to study the methods of providing financial resources to municipalities, especially the methods of creating sustainable financial resources in municipalities for development and urban development. This research has investigated the methods of providing financial resources of municipalities in urban development and construction (a case study of Shahrood city). In order to achieve these goals, municipalities have been formed and assigned various duties based on the law. On this basis, a municipality is an organization that is established according to the principle of administrative decentralization in order to manage local affairs such as construction and settlement, city health and the welfare of its citizens and residents.

A municipality is a type of city administration system and consists of two units called the city council and the municipal administration, the first of which is the supervisory and decision-making authority in the city, and the second is its executive; In other words, the characteristic feature of this system is that the determination of the policy and general policy of the city affairs is in the hands of a board called the city council, and the implementation of the said ideas and general policy is entrusted to an officer called the mayor, and the mayor is responsible and accountable to the city council for the operations of the municipal administration, that is, the executive body under his supervision. If the municipality violates or fails to perform its duties, it will be impeached by the elected representatives of the residents and residents of the city who are in the city council, and if it is not approved, it will be removed by their vote.

The municipality, as one of the fundamental pillars of urban management, like other organizations, must use the principles of balance between income sources and expenses as a basic approach in providing and consuming its financial resources. Income for municipalities is one of the challenges of this urban foundation in different cities, both big and small.

On the other hand, the citizens of every city, considering the growing needs of their needs and the need to raise the level of various urban services, demand the provision of diverse and appropriate services by municipalities, which has made the existence of sustainable incomes for municipalities even on a smaller scale and the principled and codified planning based on these incomes a necessary and necessary thing in urban management and to satisfy citizens.

Studies on the experiences of countries in the field of obtaining new urban revenues and their reform all agree on the issue that earning and providing urban financial resources in order to create goods and services needed by citizens, while being one of the basic goals of every urban society, if such revenues reduce the quality of living conditions and endanger the quality of human habitats (cities), they are not considered as stable revenues and healthy (desirable) revenues.

Any effort to activate incomes and create new financial resources should be focused on two categories, i.e. continuity over time and being desirable.

Any effort to activate incomes and create new financial resources should be carried out according to two categories, i.e. continuity over time and if they are desirable, they should be done within the framework of urban planning rules. Lack of formation and establishment of subsidiary organizations and inappropriate distribution of some incomes and lack of proper organizational structure are other revenue challenges. Considering all the mentioned issues, the revenue ways to reduce costs should be the attention of the city managers so that all aspects of revenue, whether in terms of legal status, government mechanisms, and the share paid to the municipality from the government and the Ministry of Interior, and finally, people's participation in the form of tolls from future programs, will create a bright future for the cities. Moving from the area of ??micro-activities to larger activities such as participation in multi-purpose projects provides the opportunity to deal with urban management to other sectors that cannot be managed except by applying direct management. Provision of non-cash incomes obtained by process re-engineering has ensured the efficiency of non-cash resources in some areas. While some experts say that the only source of revenue for municipalities is tolls, and therefore they call these institutions in need of government assistance, it is the municipalities themselves that should reduce their dependence on the government through practical studies and strengthening the support of thought-action management and benefit from the standardization of methods of achieving sustainable incomes. With a very superficial and transient comparison and comparing the countries of Germany, Indonesia, England, France and Thailand, which are examples of developing and developed countries, as well as the city of Tehran, which is a developing metropolis, it can be seen that the current unstable revenues of the municipalities, which are mostly dependent on the sale of density, cannot guarantee rational growth in this metropolis, and in fact, without having stable revenues, it is not possible to create a lot of motivation to implement long and key projects.

Shahroud Municipality as one of After Semnan municipality, the big municipalities of the province have the highest income and budget throughout the year. The said municipality, as the trustee and administrator of the city, should direct and speed up the activities of the public and private sectors. Financial restrictions and lack of financial resources needed to fulfill legal duties and missions or the needs and demands of citizens are one of the most important challenges and concerns of this municipality. In this research, considering the geographical location of Shahrood and its location on the Tehran-Mashhad transit route, an attempt has been made to investigate the methods of providing financial and income resources of Shahrood Municipality. It seems that the optimal use of the Law of Renovation and Urban Development Fees as a source of sustainable income along with public participation provides the conditions for the independence of this municipality. Municipalities are responsible for the well-being and public services of the city and even the opening of business for the people and residents of the city and are obliged to provide the infrastructure as well as the necessary services for the proper functioning of the city activities. In fact, city management is the factor of creating coordination for the optimal use of city resources and attracting new resources. In other words, city management determines the function and approach of the present and future of the city. The improvement of the performance of the city and its society is through the satisfaction of social, energy, environmental, technical and economic performance criteria. In particular, this method allows to define the relationship between the government and urban managements of urban resources and services by establishing laws related to the environmental cycle of materials and collecting fees for the use of the city's natural resources and reducing the harmful effects of consumption. In other words, access to urban services in all conditions guarantees the satisfaction and tolerability of both parties, i.e. the citizen and the city. Urban management guides the city towards purposeful development in order to meet service, cultural, social, sports and welfare needs. The requirement for targeted development is the participation of citizens, which can lead to the development of the city in cooperation with the municipality.