Current Problems with Iran's Municipalities Financing System with an Emphasis on Spatial Dimensions

Upon urban economics, municipalities are among public institutions in Iran which are responsible for providing public goods and services for the citizens. The institution, to compensate for expenses for providing urban public goods, is dependent on specific resources the most important of which are collecting taxes and tolls and the fines for illegal constructions. However, many analysts believe that such resources are unsustainable. The current article, while confirming the previous findings, spatially analyzes the issue of unsustainable financing method of municipalities. The results, upon such an approach, indicated that overdependency of municipalities on current model of financing resources spreads a model of urban development which results in unsustainability of city and income resources of the municipalities as the main hypothesis of the current research is that a significant part of the expenses of a municipality for which financing is required has its root in developmental-spatial models the municipality has opted for. Thus, the solution suggested by the current research is eliminating legal obstacles for financing and careful allocation and definition of responsibilities and clarifying the status of municipality in a city. Change in the developmental approach of municipalities to cities is also suggested.