Citizens’ self-taxation as an effective tool for public participation in territories’ development

Currently, the actual scientific and practical tasks are to find internal sources and financial resources for the development of local territories (municipalities), as well as ensuring the necessary level of public participation in solving the issues and problems of local importance. As the world and Russian practice shows, citizens’ self-taxation can be one of the effective mechanisms for solving these problems. In this regard, the purpose of the article is to determine the role of citizens’ self-taxation as an instrument of public participation in territories’ development in modern conditions and the optimal order of this procedure organization. To achieve this goal, we used such scientific methods as economic, statistical and comparative analysis, methods of generalization and expert survey, monographic method. It is shown that from 2013 to 2018 the volume of collected funds of self-taxation in the municipalities of Russia increased by 10 times. Recognized leaders in the development of this management technology are the Republic of Tatarstan, the Perm and Kirov oblasts. It is proved that the condition for the successful development of this practice in the mentioned regions is co-financing of projects and activities within the framework of self-taxation by the budget of the Russian Federation subject. The article describes in detail the regulatory and organizational requirements and conditions ensuring the implementation of citizens’ self-taxation procedure. The results of calculations of the possible collected funds of the population’s self-taxation in the case of the city of Vologda, the Vologda municipal district, Kubensky and Verkhnevarzhensky rural settlements of the Vologda region (within different options and taking into account co-financing from the regional budget) are presented. The results of the study can be used by regional and local authorities, as well as serve as a basis for further research on improving the mechanisms of development of the institute of local self-government in Russia.