ABSTRACT
This article aimed at the Brazilian decentralization process concerning the cities with population between one hundred thousand and one million inhabitants and their level of financial autonomy. The article not only analyses the performance of the medium cities and their capacity of assuming greater responsibilities in the implementation of public policies but also analyses some statistics from the last decade. This analysis pointed out that the medium cities are increasing their financial autonomy in consequence of some changes in the public income management despite the fact that the medium cities still depend on the income transferred from state and central government. In addition, the budget for public policies from the central government is shrinking what should stimulate the implementation of public policies aimed at a growth on the public income, specially on IPTU.
KEYWORDS
Public policy; taxation; regional development