El desempeño financiero de los municipios de Quintana Roo[Financial Performance of the municipalities of Quintana Roo]

The municipality is the government level closest to its population which directly perceives their needs and requirements. The municipalities´ responsibilities are to provide public services and guarantee basic public infrastructure. Thus, it is essential that municipalities have sufficient income to ensure their administration and operation to comply with the constitutional responsibilities conferred. Numerous studies have shown the inability of municipalities to generate income as a result of a poor fiscal effort, causing the debate about inefficiency. In Quintana Roo, economic polarization and regional inequalities results in a strong dependence of the municipalities on the federal and state governments´ financial support, situation that limits their autonomy. In this paper, based on a methodology designed by aRegional (2009) we calculate a municipal financial index performance, which allows us to have a clear references of the state of Quintana Roo´s municipalities and their operational and administrative conditions, since we consider each of the relevant aspects of the municipal operations, financial aspects to the public income and expenditure in administrative, operational and even public investment promotion.