Financial Equalization in the Conditions of Reform of the Public Finance Management System

In connection with the expiration, in 2020, of basic regulatory and legal acts coordinating the implementation of the decentralization, it is needed to actualize and determine further directions of reform of the public finance management system. The purpose of the article is to determine efficient methods and directions of further improvement of the financial equalization system in Ukraine in order to form progressive local budget resource model, which by more balanced socio-economic development of municipalities will meet the needs of the population. The article addresses the essence and main components of financial equalization as a tool of budget regulation. The contents of the fiscal imbalance, horizontal and vertical equalization, evolution of methods of removal of fiscal disparities are highlighted. A European approach to overcoming the effects of the unequal distribution of potential sources of the financing of expenditures of bodies of local self-government is characterized. Features and invariance of reform of the public finance management system on the basis of decentralization, renewal of the financial equalization mechanism are considered. As a result of research, the effects (achievements and shortcomings) of the functioning of tools of vertical and horizontal equalization in the budget system of Ukraine implemented as a result of reform of fiscal decentralization, are analyzed. Basic recommendations aimed at further strengthening and establishing a stable local budgets base being a foundation for the whole budget system and a financial basis for local self-government, are proposed, on the strategy of improving the financial equalization mechanism that will provide achieving a balance of the interests of all participants in inter-budgetary relations.