Lee Jang-woo, Daejeon mayor, and Kim Tae-heum, South Chungcheong governor, said on the 21st that the government's administrative integration support measures are nothing more than an extension of subordinate local autonomy and have degenerated into a propaganda tool to promote the president's campaign pledge.
After meeting at Daejeon City Hall that day to discuss response measures to the administrative integration being pushed by the government and the ruling party, the mayor and the governor stated accordingly.
Earlier, on the 16th, the government said it would provide a total of 20 trillion won, 5 trillion won annually, to provinces and cities pursuing administrative integration.
Regarding this, the governor said, "Is what the central ministries have come up with merely 5 trillion won a year under the name of incentives?" and added, "The Democratic Party of Korea is praising itself for the plan the government presented just because of a word from the president, and it will be judged by history."
The mayor said, "The Daejeon–South Chungcheong integration is degenerating into a showcase and a propaganda tool to promote the president's pledge of 'five hubs and three specials.'"
They said, "The government's announcement is merely an extension of subordinate local autonomy in which the central government allocates special cases and budgets, and it is hypocrisy and fiction in terms of the essence of balanced regional development," adding, "Substantive local autonomy has disappeared, and it has created a competitive structure among regions as if it were a government public contest project."
They then said, "The special law must explicitly stipulate the transfer of central fiscal and regulatory authority, reflecting the president's strong will for autonomous decentralization."
They also said they could reopen discussions on administrative integration if the bill to be introduced by the Democratic Party of Korea is insufficient. The Democratic Party of Korea plans to introduce the relevant bill by early next week at the latest.
The mayor said, "We will have to consult with the city and provincial councils, but if the bill backtracks from the one introduced by lawmaker Seong Il-jong, we will need to revisit the discussion." The governor said, "The current ratio of national taxes to local government tax is about 75 to 25, and it should be adjusted to about 6 to 4," adding, "To ensure a proper bill can be passed, a special committee should be formed jointly by both the ruling and opposition parties, not led by the Democratic Party of Korea."
However, they were guarded in their comments about the People Power Party candidate after administrative integration.