Seoul City and the 25 district offices said on the 22nd that "the central government must fix its unreasonable differential subsidies for Seoul."
Seoul City and the Council of District Mayors announced a "joint declaration on local government finance by Seoul City and district offices" at City Hall's main conference room that morning. The joint declaration called for an end to the central government's unilateral shifting to local governments of policy expense, such as consumption coupons, and for improving the practice of differential state subsidies applied to Seoul.
They said, "The central government's practice of passing on policy expense without sufficient consultation and consent with localities is a critical issue that undermines not only the operation of region-specific policies but also responsible fiscal management," adding, "To respond proactively to social needs, rational role-sharing between the central and local governments and fiscal predictability are essential."
They added, "For the same or similar projects, the differential subsidy that applies a lower state subsidy rate only to Seoul reduces not only fairness but also efficiency, so clear improvement is needed."
They cited as an example the people's livelihood recovery consumption coupons that the central government recently decided to distribute. The government shifted the project expense for the consumption coupons equally to all 17 metropolitan and provincial governments, while applying different subsidy rates. Seoul's state subsidy rate was 75%, while the other provinces and cities received 90%. The resulting burden on Seoul City and the district offices was estimated at 580 billion won.
Seo Gang-seok, chair of the Council of District Mayors, said, "Unlike the central government, local government finance is, in principle, not allowed to run a deficit, causing a vicious cycle in which projects needed to improve residents' convenience and welfare must inevitably be reduced," adding, "Expanding local governments' autonomous fiscal authority is a task of the times that can no longer be delayed."
Oh Se-hoon, the Seoul mayor, said, "Local autonomy has grown alongside citizens' lives for 30 years, but fiscal autonomy has stood still," adding, "We will push this declaration to the end, responsibly, so that it becomes a real turning point for institutional improvement."