Local government funding in other countries

I am hoping to receive contributions from people with experience of other countries in order to provide examples that may foster discussion and debate.

Canada

Canada has a system of local sales tax which varies from province to province. However, I am not sure how closely the revenue from this is linked with the expenditure of local government. Perhaps someone could enlighten me?

Please contribute

If you know the local government financing regime in a country other than the United Kingdom and can explain it in relatively straightforward terms then please use the your say page to let me know.

The case, or not
for local VAT