The way in which municipalities fund their tasks now is a result of long-established, often unconscious principles. These are expressed in the Grants to Municipal Authorities Act of 1997. The distribution system based on this Act solved the financial problems for municipalities occurring at that time. In this respect, the system has proved its worth. Partly because of the introduction of decentralisation grants in the municipal fund, it provided a good basis for far-reaching restructuring of specific grants. That is a positive development. Because of this system, the decentralisation of tasks and resources to municipalities has also increased enormously. Most of the benefits of decentralisation, however, only arise if there is sufficient policy discretion.
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The municipalities’ heavy financial dependence on the central government unintentionally has a standardising effect. Many specific grants have been transferred to the municipal fund in the form of adjustment and decentralisation grants.
https://www.raadopenbaarbestuur.nl/binaries/raad-openbaar-be...

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Note added at 4 hrs (2023-01-07 16:34:48 GMT)
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@Erwin: graag gedaan! Misschien heb je verder ook nog iets aan dit document.