Their main responsibilities are secondary schools, public health services, social welfare, culture, architecture and construction, and public safety and most multi-municipality infrastructure.26 However, because of their limited finances, the role of powiats in social and economic development policy is limited. There are ongoing debates in Poland about the efficacy of the county level of government, particularly in areas surrounding municipalities with county status (Sakowicz, 2017). In terms of subventions from other levels of government, small rural gminas benefit from grants that take into account more limited tax capacity and needs related to the community’s socio-economic characteristics.