Uijeongbu Mayor An Byung-yong: "Current Constitution Does Not Fit Local Autonomy"

Uijeongbu Mayor An Byung-yong stated at the Local Finance and Autonomy System Forum held on the 9th to revitalize the Uijeongbu City Administrative Innovation Committee, "The current constitution concentrates all authority in the central government and does not fit local decentralization and local autonomy," and added, "Local government bodies' fiscal authority, urban planning authority, and personnel authority are all controlled by the central government, so mayors cannot freely exercise autonomy. Fiscal matters, the most critical of these, are in a poor state, so if we can establish a theoretical foundation at this forum, it will be of great help to local decentralization and local autonomy."

The Local Finance Forum (Chairman Professor Son Hee-jun of Cheongju University) and the Autonomy System Forum (Chairman Dr. Park Chung-hoon of Gyeonggi Research Institute) held a presentation and discussion at the forum on the topic of "Uijeongbu City's Financial Status and Development Direction - Focused on Local Financial Analysis Results" by Dr. Lee Sang-beom.

Prior to the presentation, a promotional video for the Uijeongbu Light Rail Transit was viewed and a PowerPoint presentation on Uijeongbu City's future promotion was given. After the forum concluded, participants also had the opportunity to ride the Uijeongbu Light Rail Transit.

Dr. Lee Sang-beom emphasized that since Uijeongbu's local tax collection rate indicator is in the bottom 25 percent, active efforts to improve local tax collection are required. He stressed the need to review local tax collection cases from other municipalities, including: securing high-value delinquent taxes through garnishment of collection rights; enhancing local tax and non-tax revenue collection through vehicle delinquency tracking system establishment; collecting delinquent taxes through bank account inquiry for delinquent taxpayers residing outside the municipality; and expanding local tax revenues through sale and disposition of properties under pre-garnishment.

Furthermore, since Uijeongbu City's evaluation of current non-tax revenue indicators shows insufficient results, he emphasized the need to establish customized approach strategies considering the characteristics of delinquency occurrences. In cases involving collective real estate transaction contract reports in Uijeongbu City urban development project districts or designated residential areas, contracts and related documents should be thoroughly reviewed, and when deemed to be abnormal transactions, local tax data from the tax department should be referenced and information shared to actively carry out investigation, assessment, and collection tasks.

In particular, he noted that cases from other municipalities should be reviewed, including: increasing non-tax revenue through installation of solar power generation facilities on public facilities; implementing strong collection of delinquent amounts through a dedicated non-tax revenue organization; selling power generated at the incineration resource center; and achieving budget savings through subsidy budget monitoring.