Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said on the 29th regarding the funding for the people's livelihood recovery consumption coupons, "As immediate funding is needed, local governments are resorting to loopholes in issuing local government bonds."
Mayor Oh attended the 332nd temporary session of the Seoul City Council on this day, and when People Power Party member Yoon Young-hee asked about the funding plan for the people's livelihood recovery consumption coupons, he made this remark.
Among the 17 cities and provinces, Seoul City is the only one receiving a national treasury subsidy rate of 75% (other cities and provinces receive 90%). The local government funding burden from the first issuance of consumption coupons amounts to 350 billion won, and to secure this, Seoul City has decided to issue local government bonds.
Mayor Oh stated, "Although Seoul City has tightened its belt to reduce liabilities, imposing the burden of issuing consumption coupons all at once is hard to accept."
He added, "If we issue bonds for consumption coupons and incur debt, it is truly a matter of concern. Moreover, to issue local government bonds, we need to amend the Local Government Finance Act, but we are only at the stage of passing it through the subcommittee of the Interior and Safety Committee. As immediate funding is required, we are using loopholes in issuing local government bonds while amending the law in a two-track approach."
Mayor Oh also commented, "We are looking to utilize the disaster management fund by issuing local government bonds to inject them into the disaster management fund and then use that as the integrated financial stabilization fund. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we operated the disaster management fund through a loophole under disaster circumstances, but is there truly a national consensus on using the disaster management fund as a bypass for populist policies early in the administration?"
He continued, "I will cooperate this time with President Lee Jae-myung, but if this happens repeatedly in the future, Seoul City will find it difficult to cooperate," and remarked, "Shifting the burden onto local governments is a very wrong practice."