Annotation

The article examines municipal property as an independent constitutional and legal prerequisite for the economic independence of local self-government. It argues that municipal property and local budget funds constitute not merely the resource base of municipal activity, but the material foundation of the real autonomy of municipal authority, without which local self-government loses its substance as a form of popular democracy. The methodological basis of the study includes formal legal, systemic and doctrinal methods, as well as an analysis of legislation and the case law of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. The scientific novelty lies in treating municipal assets not only as objects of civil circulation, but primarily as constitutionally significant public assets that determine the limits of permissible redistribution of powers, financial obligations and property complexes between different levels of public authority. The article concludes that, under Federal Law No. 33-FZ of March 20, 2025, the composition and legal regime of municipal property should be assessed through the criteria of proportionality, sufficiency of the material basis of local self-government and the inadmissibility of imposing a disproportionate public burden on local budgets.