The role of local government units in financing tasks in the scope of culture and protection of national heritage in Poland

Abstract

The study addresses the issue of financing tasks in the scope of culture carried out by local government units (JST). The discussed research problem concerns in particular the organisational and legal forms of implementation of tasks and related expenses. It is expressed by a research hypothesis, according to which the level of expenditure incurred varies depending on the level and type of local government units. In order to verify the hypothesis formulated in this way, a characteristics of organisational and legal forms of the implementation of tasks in the field of culture and the principles of running a financial economy by them were first prepared. Then, an analysis was made of the level and structure of expenditure of local government units on culture and protection of national heritage in 2010–2016 and the share of these expenditures in total expenditure. The study uses the method of comparative descriptive analysis. As a result of the conducted research, it was found that the amount of expenditure on culture varies depending on the type of local government unit. Analysing the expenditure of local government units from the perspective of individual levels of local government (municipalities, cities with poviat rights, poviats, voivodeships), one can observe significant differences in the level of expenditure. This is related to the division of competences between the various levels of local government units and the number of cultural institutions subordinate to particular levels. Municipalities and cities with poviat rights have devoted the most resources to culture. Considering the share of expenditures on culture in total expenditure, the highest percentage of expenditure on culture in relation to all expenditures of local government units was observed in the case of voivodeship budgets.