文档介绍：PROPERTY TAXATION, PUBLIC FINANCE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF BELÉM, BRAZIL
José Júlio Lima
INTRODUCTION
Property taxation, public finance and relationships between them have only partially constituted elements of the sustainable development debate, although the issue of urban management has included these matters in the context of development promotion (UNCED, 1992: 54,56). But the capacity of local governments to generate revenue by property taxation on the one hand, and their requirements for infrastructure investment on the other, dictate local development patterns and thus the quality of urban environments in which people live. It follows therefore that any examination of local government processes and development decision-making should include public finance issues in order to evaluate the extent to which they constrain or support the achievement of sustainable urban development in a wider sense.
To investigate the issue, this chapter considers the relationships between ponents of sustainable development and local administration instruments. More specifically, the chapter aims to identify consequences of property taxation assessment and public infrastructure investment at the local government level on city development and the distribution of services. It identifies factors which arise from the transformation of rural areas to urban, and in particular how urban form is influenced by public finance and property taxation. The chapter draws on the case of Belém, Brazil, to demonstrate these issues.
The chapter briefly discusses the role of the city in the sustainable development debate. Comparisons between the impact of the sustainability debate in developing and developed countries suggest that urban management and planning need to be reviewed to include public finance and property taxation to help promote sustainability. The case of Belém is then explored, to illustrate how the built form and property assessment, as part of local government fi