Rosnące zadłużenie jednostek samorządu terytorialnego jako zagrożenie dla rozwoju lokalnego
The growing debt of local government units as a threat to local development

Summary/Abstract: Local development is a long-term process of changes taking place in the economy. It is necessaryto make expenses, especially on investments, for these changes to take place. At the locallevel the financial costs of these changes need to be borne chiefly by entities of the local governmentsector. Poland’s accession to the European Union and the possibility for local government unitsto use the EU funds, especially between 2007 and 2013, caused their development. It resulted ingreater residential and investment attractiveness of many rural communes, but their debt increaseddynamically. On the one hand, by repayable financing local government units can function despitethe inadequacy between their income and the costs of tasks. They can also maintain a high level ofcapital expenditure despite their low investment potential. On the other hand, local government unitsface the problem of a safe indebtedness level and appropriate debt management. Excessive indebtednessof local government units is a threat not only to their stable functioning and local developmentbut also to financial stability of the entire public finance sector. The aim of this article is to analysethe indebtedness of local government units in Poland between 2007 and 2014 and to determine theperspectives of local development of these entities in view of their growing debt and in the contextof legal limitations concerning the possibilities of local government units to incur new debts, whichwere introduced in 2014. The study was based on the database published by the Ministry of Financeand the Central Statistical Office.

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