Nowadays, globalization affects almost all aspects of social life. It is sensible to respond flexibly to these trends and to be prepared for their benefits or potential risks. The local self-government represented by municipalities has an increasingly important role in the economic development of individual regions of Slovakia. Are municipalities prepared for the process of globalization and its impacts? Do they have tools in their hands to respond to its trends? One of the most important tasks of the municipality is to serve as an activator of regional, social and economic development and to influence the conditions for entrepreneurship by attracting potential investors to start business activities in the municipality territories. The new entrepreneurial activities and investments are a potential source of new job opportunities resulting in increased living standards of the local residents. This paper deals with indicators that express the financial capacity of the municipality and thus the ability of the municipality to participate in the process of development of a particular region. The analysis evaluates data obtained from financial statements of Slovak municipalities for year 2017. Its results show that the available financial resources of municipalities are limited and therefore the municipalities are unable to support regional development from their own financial sources.

Local self-government, represented by municipalities, is not only obliged to ensure all competencies set by legislation, whether original or transferred, but also to play an increasingly important role in the economic development of entrusted territory. One of a key challenge of the municipalities is also to act as an activator of development, either independently by using their own financial resources or in cooperation with potential investors who want to start new, whether social or economic activities in the respective area. Based on the published studies, the authors looked for suitable indicators to evaluate the financial conditions of Slovak municipalities to participate actively in the regional development of a particular region. They evaluated financial data of municipalities not only from the perspective of eight Slovak regions, but also in terms of size categories of municipalities, since they want to find out, how individual size categories of municipalities contribute to the healthy and viable financial condition of considered regions. In terms of analysis, a high degree of territorial fragmentation can be observed in Slovakia, which in the case of small size categories of municipalities (up to 3,000 inhabitants) negatively affects their ability to participate in regional development, because they have worse financial and property conditions. The athours ealuate quantitative financial and demographic data on Slovak municipalities for the period between 2014 and 2018, which they obtained from the Slovak DataCentrum and Ineko websites.

The aim of the article is to reveal regional differences in revenues from local taxation and to compare the development of local government taxation ratios with selected socio-economic indicators within the NUTS III regions in the Slovak Republic. The paper points out the regional differences in local tax revenues in relation to total tax revenues, own current revenues, and total current expenditures with regard to the socio-economic level of the regions. We measure regional disparities through the coefficient of variation and the socio-economic level of regions through the composite index created from selected socioeconomic indicators of the respective regions. Results indicate that the social and economic performance of regions had an impact on revenues from taxation by local governments. We observe a declining trend of the monitored indicators from west to north-east of the country.

Efficiency in using resources to achieve desired results at the lowest possible cost is not important only for profit-making subjects, but also for non-profit subjects. Economic efficiency of public administration is a permanent topic in Slovakia. Local self-government, represented by municipalities, is an important part of public administration and deals with questions of local importance. In the context of population ageing, the issue of funding care needs of the elderly is addressed in this paper. The paper describes and analyzes social-related expenditures in Slovakia, especially those for taking care of older people in municipalities. It studies the efficiency of Slovak municipalities in allocating financial resources to satisfy potential needs of their seniors by using appropriate mathematical and statistical methods.

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