The activities related to the municipal sector are developed along three main fields.
- The study of current expenditure and the level of services provided by all municipalities, mainly aimed at the development of techniques for estimating standard expenditure needs, activities entrusted to SOSE by the Law D.Lgs. 216/2010.
- The analysis of municipal fees, supporting the Department of Finance in estimating fiscal capacity.
- The study of fiscal equalization systems, providing technical support to the General Accounting Office of the State and the Ministry of the Interior in the implementation of the new mechanism of intergovernmental grants allocation through the use of standard expenditure needs and fiscal capacity.
Evaluation of municipal standard expenditure needs
According to the provisions of the Law D.Lgs. 216/2010, SOSE develops the database and identifies the methods which are used by the Technical Commission for Standard Expenditure Needs (CTFS) for the definition of the standard expenditure needs of the municipalities located in the Regions with Ordinary Statute.
The 2017 Budget Law extended to the municipalities of the Sicily region the process of gathering the information necessary for the determination of the standard expenditure needs.
All activities related to standard expenditure needs are carried out with the scientific partnership of the Institute for Finance and Local Economy (IFEL) of the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI).
The data collected and used for the estimation of municipal standard expenditure needs are available on the website www.opencivitas.it.
Evaluation of municipal Fiscal capacity
Since 2015 SOSE has been supporting the Department of Finance in the evaluation of the fiscal capacity related to municipal fees as well as providing an estimate of the fiscal capacity of waste management fees of the municipalities of the regions with ordinary Statute.
Municipal solidarity fund
The Municipal Solidarity Fund (FSC), introduced in 2013, is the main instrument of fiscal equalization of the municipal sector. It is aimed at ensuring a fair redistribution of resources among municipalities through two channels: the compensation of historical resources; and a formula grants system determined by the difference between standard expenditure needs and fiscal capacity.
Regarding this second component, since 2015, SOSE supports the General Accounting Office of the State and the Ministry of the Interior in the definition of the allotment techniques.