Summary - Measurements for municipalities 2014
Municipal output and expenditure in the period 2007-2012
Original title: Maten voor gemeenten 2014
Dutch municipalities spent an aggregate total of more than 51 billion euros in 2012, thereby accounting for 18% of total Dutch government spending. It is appropriate to ask what services citizens and businesses receive for this money. This publication compares the spending by local authorities on the various task areas with the output they deliver in those areas. This question is becoming increasingly relevant as more and more tasks are transferred to local authorities from central government. This year, for example, Dutch local authorities have become wholly responsible for labour market participation, home care and youth care services. The outcomes, which relate to the period 2007-2012, suggest that the Dutch local authorities are doing a reasonably good job of maintaining the level of municipal services, even though they are having to do so with less money.
Evert Pommer, Ingrid Ooms and Saskia Jansen are researchers in the Labour and Public Services research sector at the Netherlands Institute for Social Research|SCP.