Election Campaign for Local Government in the Perspective of Local Government Press

Local government press is one of important channels of conveying information in the local space. Its functions are being constantly redefined as a result of the changing paradigm of communicating on the local level. Local government press gains particular importance during any election campaign becoming the carrier of information for local authorities seeking reelection. The following text presents the results of research carried out in selected cities with poviat rights in the last quarter of 2014, during the local government election campaign in Poland.

The possible effects on the future management of local Italian authorities following the use of financial derivative instruments

The appeal from municipalities, provinces and regions to financial derivative instruments is tied to the need of overcoming the situations in a state of urgency inherent in a balance. On average, one local Italian authority in twenty has decided to underwrite a derivative product, giving life to a number of contracts that had a value of over 35 billion euro with an average value of 6.5 million for each contract until 2007. The boom of swaps has, since 2000 on, experienced a peak period from 2003 to the end of 2005, in which the Euribor rate touched a very low level, maintained itself for long periods at around 2% and fallen in some cases even under this value. Many of the contracts completed before 2006, which link the debt of local authorities to variable rates, but also many of those completed from 2006 onwards that moved debt onto fixed rate, which are now a source of loss for the balance of local authorities that have underwritten them. In the 2002-2008 period, the number of the stipulation of contracts local authorities reported to the Ministry of Economy and Finance is about 900, corresponding to more or less 150 per year, which affected 18 regions, 44 provinces, 532 municipalities and 4 mountain commtmities, for a total of 594 authorities. Therefore, the local authorities have approached the derivative instruments in an often approximate way without a real awareness, both for the conditions that were being negotiated and the effects that they would have produced in perspective. The purpose of this work is to highlight the consequences of the use of derivative instruments on the future management of local authorities.

Property Tax Performance of Local Authorities in Malaysia

Property tax income of local authorities has become more challenging due to robust developments. Property tax revenue is the main income for local authorities that are used to pay for services and maintenance in the local authority administrative areas. However, the amount of revenue collected is decreasing due to the serious problem of property tax arrears that affects the administrative system and as a corollary, the delivery of services by local authorities. The performance measurement of property tax is very important in order to manage the services, and for maintenance and development of sustainable local authorities. Therefore, this paper represents a review of the Malaysian local authority property tax collection performance. The rating system is applied to address the performance of property tax collection in Malaysia. The result revealed that most of the property tax collection in Malaysia performed under inadequate level. Property tax collection statistics for the research include the total revenue and property tax arrears for each local authority in Malaysia within five years from 2004 to 2007. It is expected that this property tax performance will be employed as a basis to pursue the appropriate, innovative, and creative approaches for local authorities in Malaysia.

GEPUR： A Method for Managing a Road Network by and for Local Authorities

France has about one million kilometres of roads, 98% of which are managed by departments （the French Administrative Area Departement） and municipalities. Because of growing social expenditures, these local authorities are reducing credits for roads, which is leading to a reduction in the length of roads serviced annually, and an expected deterioration of roads generally. Faced with this problem, departmental and urban project designers in the eastern region of France have been meeting within the GEPUR （＂Gestion et Entretien du Patrimoine Urbain et Routier＂ or ＂Urban and Road Heritage Management and Maintenance＂） group since September 2012, to： firstly, develop a method for road network management and programming of assistance based on the experiences of each participant, a modular method depending on the size of the road network and adapted to the contracting authority; secondly, give technical legitimacy to the managers who will be applying the method. They will be able to more easily set up a constructive dialogue with the elected officials in charge of roads, and better justify the use of the credits requested. Two methodological guides will be published, one intended for departmental networks （2015）, the other for municipal networks in mid-2017. A white paper for elected officials has also been drafted. Ultimately, this experience will be extended throughout France.

Small Land Promotion Through Their Culture, Language and Individuality： The Importance of Culture Heritage for the Community Development

Promotion is becoming one of the most commonly and intentionally used by local government element of marketing mix. It can be either internal （addressed to the inhabitants of the unit） or external （aimed at people who are not residents of the unit）. The subject of the presented studies will be culture promotion of the region. One of the areas of promotion, little appreciated in Poland so far, is culture and culture heritage which are of greater and greater importance for the regional development. Culture heritage can be a resource to strengthen the region and improve the conditions for economic growth. Culture goods constitute an important factor in the development of socio-economic region. They increase tourist attractiveness contributing to the development of tourism and agro-tourism in the area. The rich history, multi-layered and diverse culture heritage, both tangible and intangible, can be one of the main assets of raising the competitiveness of the given region in the country and the European Union （EU）. It should be assumed that in a market economy town or municipality operate in a manner similar to enterprise, they produce products and services offered to the internal market （municipality） as well as to external one （surrounding of the municipality）. Competitive conditions require the use of all tools to increase the effectiveness of the operation, including marketing tools. Being a marketing issue a product, which is offered by a city/town, can be considered in two aspects： first as a mega-product （i.e., a city/town as a whole）, second as a distribution of a mega-product for individual municipal sub-products. Presented concept of a product offered by a city in its two distinctions can be also applied to a municipality. Market-based approach in relation to territorial units is usually called ＂territorial marketing＂. Alternatively, they can be also called ＂spatial marketing＂ and ＂area marketing＂. Depending on the type of territorial units and the scope of marketing activities various concepts are used （e.g., urban marketing and municipal marketing）. Currently in Poland these concepts are generally related to basic units of the administrative division of the country namely to urban and rural municipalities. Therefore, for this type of activities one can suggest the term ＂municipal marketing＂.

The Public Private Partnership （PPP） as a Solution During the Period of Transformation of the Medical Services Market in Poland

The public private partnership （PPP） has functioned worldwide for more than 40 years now, and in different countries, it is developing at different speeds with varying degrees of success. The purpose of this article is to emphasize some standards of the PPP, in particular, within health services area which would guarantee a successful transformation process within the medical services market in Poland, and thus an appropriate division of financial and market risks among the public sectors, including local government sector and private partners within the health services area. Certainly, proper transformation solutions within that industry would significantly contribute to the stabilization of the local government＇s finance sector and higher resistance to the global financial crisis.