Municipalities have the right to levy a flat percentual income tax, which is between 16 and 22 percent, and they provide two thirds of public services.

Municipalities control many community services, such as schools, health care and the water supply, and local streets.

They do not maintain highways, set laws or keep police forces, which are responsibilities of the central government.

Remuneration depends on the municipality and position, but is generally nominal or modest: a regular council member is paid 70 euro on average on a per-meeting basis (2017).

The city manager of Helsinki is called ylipormestari / överborgmästare "Lord Mayor" for historical reasons.

Excluding judicial review of formal compliance to administrative law, municipalities are independent and not a part of a local state hierarchy.

State agencies have jurisdictions spanning one or more regions: each region is served by an ely-keskus (elinkeino-, liikenne- ja ympäristökeskus) on matters of employment, the economy, transport and environment, while law and environmental enforcement is handled by the local aluehallintovirasto, governing multi-region jurisdictions termed alue.-G.H- Residents pay a municipal tax that is a form of income tax, which is the mainstay of the income of a municipality (42% of income).

However, in practice even the municipal tax is progressive due to generous deductions granted to the lowest income levels.

The pre-deduction base tax varies from 16% in affluent Kauniainen to 20% or more in a number of small rural municipalities.

[2] Besides taxes, sales revenue, fees and profit of operations also form a substantial share of municipal income (21%).

Additionally, municipalities levy a property tax, amounting to 3.6% of income, which is comparatively low: the annual fee is 0.32-0.75% of net present value for permanent residences and 0.50-1.00% for leisure properties like summer cottages as well as undeveloped plots.

Finland has an extensive public welfare system, and municipalities are responsible for much of the services to that end.

Thus, although municipalities have the power to voluntarily spend tax-generated income, they are required to first allocate funds to legally prescribed services.

All municipalities called maalaiskunta were eventually either merged to their parent cities or changed their names.

This is expected as the name of the municipality refers to the entire parish, not just a single center like a church village.

A catalog is independently compiled each year by Statistics Finland, a state agency, and used primarily for traffic-related purposes (signage, speed limits, and highway planning).

The coats of arms for many municipalities have been designed in the modern era, many of them by Gustaf von Numers.

Essentially, a multitude of small municipalities is seen as detrimental to the provision of public services, having originated during Finland's agrarian years.

Several cities merged with surrounding rural municipalities in Hämeenlinna, Salo, Kouvola, Seinäjoki, Naantali, Kauhava, Lohja, Raseborg, Jyväskylä and Oulu in 2009.

The year 2009 also marked the end of the last maalaiskunta, a municipality surrounding a city but sharing the name, in Jyväskylä.

[8] The Sipilä cabinet, from 2015, had been preparing a significant reform of health and social services (sote-uudistus), aimed at increasing choice between municipal and private healthcare, and assigning some healthcare responsibilities into larger units than a municipality.