Lee Gwisoon, Gwangju City Council Member: "Supplementary Budget Filled with Citizens' Debt"

"Gwangju City Recklessly Issues Local Bonds Without Fiscal Principles"
"City Council Is Not a Mere Procedural Body... Unilateral Changes Are an Overreach"

Lee Gwisoon, Gwangju City Councilor.

On June 25, Lee Gwisoon, a member of the Gwangju City Council (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangsan District 4), strongly criticized the Gwangju city government for "recklessly issuing local bonds without prior explanation during the review of this year's first supplementary budget, and unilaterally allocating debt that was not included in the medium-term local fiscal plan."

In a press release issued on the same day, Lee stated, "At the time of the main budget, the recognized limit for local bond issuance was 444.3 billion won, but during the supplementary budget process, the city suddenly explained that 514.1 billion won was possible." She pointed out, "This was carried out without any amendment to the general provisions or reporting to the council, which is a clear violation of the council's right to review."

She continued, "The local bonds in this supplementary budget amount to 313.8 billion won. While most of these are for high-interest refinancing, a significant portion involves replacing projects that were originally funded by city funds in the main budget with local bonds." She criticized, "Administrative expediency that excessively relies on local bonds due to revenue shortfalls is being repeated."

In particular, she emphasized, "The problem is that most of the projects for which local bonds are issued in this supplementary budget are not reflected in the medium-term local fiscal plan." She added, "Only a few projects are explicitly marked as 'local bond issuance' in the resource allocation plan, and the major projects that received local bond funding this time are missing from the plan."

Lee asserted, "If there is a change in the budget structure or the method of raising funds, the minimum procedure is to provide a prior explanation to the council and seek its consent." She expressed regret, saying, "Nevertheless, in this supplementary budget, the city made unilateral changes without any in-person explanation or detailed report to the council."

Lee also raised suspicions of 'budget recycling,' where the budget initially allocated with city funds in the main budget was replaced with local bonds, making the whereabouts of the original city funds unclear. As a representative example, she pointed out that for the Wolbongseowon project of the New Vitality Promotion Headquarters, 1.5 billion won in city funds was converted to 3.7 billion won in local bonds, yet there was no report on how the original city funds were handled, and she called for an explanation.

Lee warned, "Since local bonds are ultimately debts that citizens must repay, fiscal management must be based on planning and transparency." She cautioned, "If the council is regarded as merely a procedural body and the budget is changed without explanation, citizens' trust in Gwangju's finances can no longer be maintained."