Global Check-Up: How Has COVID-19 Affected Municipal Fiscal Health?

Many Canadian municipalities have taken hits to their budgets due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But what has the effect been on municipalities around the world? Have municipalities in different countries fared better than others? What accounts for any differences? What needs to be done to ensure municipalities bounce back?

On October 26, this webinar explored the above questions through a discussion with experts that have worked in Latin America, Africa, Europe, and North America. This was the second of two events exploring the effects of COVID-19 on municipal finance. Watch a recording of the first event here.

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Speakers:

Isabelle Chatry is Senior Policy Analyst in the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities. Her current work focuses on multi-level governance, decentralisation and subnational public finance. She is the main author of the OECD report “Multi-level Governance Reforms: Overview of OECD Country Experiences” and one of the authors of “Making Decentralisation Work: A Handbook for Policy Makers.” Prior to joining the OECD, Isabelle worked at Dexia Crédit Local’s research department where she was in charge of the division covering European and international subnational government sector analysis.

Howard Chernick is Professor Emeritus, Dept of Economics, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, the City University of New York. He is a research affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the Universiy of Wisconsin, and a board member of Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy. Selected publications include “The Fiscal Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Cities: An Initial Assessment” (2020); “State and Local Fiscal Progressivity: Consequences for Economic Growth” (2010); and “The Impact of the Great Recession and the Housing Crisis on the Financing of America’s Largest Cities” (2011).

Astrid R.N. Haas is an urban economist with wide experience spanning government and non-governmental organizations across multiple developing countries. She is currently Policy Director of the International Growth Centre (IGC) based in Uganda. Her own research specializes in urban economics, specifically in the area of municipal and infrastructure finance. In 2016, she was nominated by the University of Cape Town as one of Africa’s Young Leaders, for her work on urbanisation in Africa. In 2020 she received the Johns Hopkins Outstanding Recent Graduate award for her leadership and accomplishments in her professional life.

Andrés Muñoz currently works at the Fiscal and Municipal Management Division of the Inter-American Development Bank. Previously he has worked as a consultant, researcher and adjunct lecturer in public finance for the United Nations Development Program, the District Secretariat of Finance of Bogota, Colombia, and the Wagner School of New York University (NYU). Andrés’ areas of expertise include fiscal decentralization and urban public finance in Latin America. He has experience implementing development projects in the areas of fiscal policy and urban development in various countries in the region.

Moderator:

Enid Slack is the Director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG). She has written extensively on property taxes, intergovernmental transfers, development charges, financing municipal infrastructure, municipal governance, and municipal boundary restructuring. Enid has also chaired or been a member of numerous panels and commissions, including the Who Does What Panel in Ontario and the City of Vancouver’s Property Tax Policy Review Commission. In 2012, she was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work on cities.