Article 3. Chile is a unitary state. The administration of the State shall be functionally and territorially decentralized, or where applicable, devolved, as provided by law. The institutions of the State shall promote strengthening of regionalization of the country and equitable, solidarity-based development among regions, provinces, and communes in the national territory. Article 118. Each commune or group of communes as established by law shall be administered locally by a municipality, which shall consist of the mayor, as highest authority, and the council. Mayors shall be elected by universal suffrage in keeping with the municipality’s constitution, for a term of four years, and may be reelected to serve a total of two successive terms. The relevant constitution shall set forth the ways and means of participation in municipal activities by the local community. The mayors, in the instances and forms dictated by the relevant constitution, may appoint delegates to perform their duties in one or more localities. Municipalities are autonomous public law corporations with their own legal personality and assets, whose purpose is to meet the needs of the local community and ensure community participation in the economic, social and cultural progress of the commune. A constitution shall establish the functions and powers of the municipalities. The constitution shall also identify those spheres of municipal authority that the mayor should submit to a non-binding referendum or plebiscite, with the consent of the council or at the request of two-thirds of the sitting councilors or a percentage of citizens determined by the law, and define the timing, how it will be convened, and its effects. Several municipalities may create associations with one another in accordance with the applicable constitution, and these associations may hold legal personality under private law. Municipalities may also set up or organize private-law non-profit corporations or foundations for the purpose of promoting and disseminating art, culture and sports, or fostering works of community and productive development. Municipal participation in these associations shall be governed by the same constitution. Municipalities, in accordance with the applicable constitution, may establish territories called neighborhood units within the communes or groupings of communes, to foster balanced development and effective channeling of citizen participation. Public utilities must coordinated with the municipality when they perform their services within the particular commune, in accordance with the law. The law shall determine the ways and means in which the ministries, public utilities, and regional governments may devolve their powers to the municipalities, as well as the provisional or final nature of such transfer. Article 122. Municipalities shall have autonomy for managing their finances. The National Budget Law may allocate resources for them to meet their expenses, notwithstanding any revenue they may be granted directly by law or by the applicable regional governments. A basic constitution shall outline a mechanism for solidarity-based redistribution of the revenues pertaining to the country’s municipalities, called the municipal common fund. The rules for distribution of this fund shall be governed by law.44 44. The original version of the Municipal Constitution (Law No. 18,695) regulated municipal management and assets in the following articles: Article 1. The local management of each commune or grouping of communes determined by law resides in a municipality. Municipalities are autonomous public law corporations, with their own legal personality and assets, whose purpose is to meet the needs of the local community and ensure community participation in the economic, social and cultural progress of the particular communes. Article (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) 10 bis. The assets of the municipalities consist of: Tangible and intangible goods it possesses or acquires under any form of ownership; Contributions received from the relevant regional government; Income from participation in the Common Municipal Fund; Duties collected for providing services and for granting permits and concessions; Revenue received from their activities or those of establishments they operate; Revenue collected as taxes authorized by law for use by communal authorities, in the frameworks given by law, applied to activities or assets that have clear local identification, to be allocated to communal development projects, notwithstanding the seventh transitory provision of the national Constitution; these include such taxes as the real estate tax created Constitution of the Republic of Chile, 1980, text consolidated by Executive Order 100, dated September 22, 2005 (evidence file, folios 10194 to 10292). 44 15