The Role of Sustainable Financial Resources in Municipalities Income Resources

Local governments, especially the municipalities as operational organizations of managerial section in public sector, are in need of providing sustainablefinancial resources. From among the methods of providing sustainable financial resources in institutionalization of social responsibilities of urban management, such issues as utilizing the potentials of the private sector, using new instruments for providing finance, making use of the potentials of financial institutions of the nation, and designing patterns for attracting financial resources could be mentioned. The fast-paced increase in urban population and assigning some of the responsibilities of the government to municipalities would result in a drastic rise in the financial requirements of the municipalities. What comes of note is achieving a sustainable pattern for economic resources to provide the finance for the common and developmental costs the cities require, enabling them to pave the way for making investment in the system of urban development infrastructure and the related welfare services possible; an issue which is always one of the main concerns of the urban managers. As in addition to the limited financial resources coming from managerial and services income of the municipalities, being dependent on such resources and failing to apply financial cooperation system, all in all, could end in a gap between city management system and the citizens. In this article, attempts have been made to investigate the role of providing sustainable financial resources in the improvement of income resources of urban management, utilizing descriptive-analytical methods. To this end, first of all, an investigation is made into the income resources of the municipalities of both the developed and developing countries and a comparison is made between the municipalities of the mentioned countries and those of Iran. Then, an assessment is made in the role the sustainable financial resources play in providing the finance for urban projects through incorporating public-private cooperation in different areas of activities in the cities and in the access of the institution of municipality to sustainable income. The article concludes with putting forward strategies for reforming the income system of municipalities emphasizing the city of Tehran.